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David Stearns was brought into his current role as president of baseball operations for the Mets just as the catastrophic 2023 season was mercifully ending. Left with the unenviable task of turning around MLB's latest disappointment, Stearns has hit the ground running.
Although the MLB free agency market will not officially open until the culmination of the 2023 World Series, teams can still claim players off of waivers. A waiver, effectively, is when a team no longer desires a player and allows other teams to claim that individual should they wish.
The waiver list is exactly where Stearns has gone. On October 31, it was announced that the Mets had claimed relief pitcher Penn Murfee off of waivers.
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"We’ve claimed RHP Penn Murfee off waivers from Seattle." - New York Mets
Murfee, an MLB sophomore who spent the last two seasons with the Seattle Mariners, is hardly a household name. However, fans seem to have trust in David Stearns' baseball acumen and are praising the new executive for potentially rooting out a hidden gem.
Injuries limited Penn Murfee to just 14 innings in 2023. However, 2022 was a relatively strong showing in the Mariners bullpen from the Tennessee native.
In 2022, Murfee threw 69 innings across 64 starts, pitching to a 2.99 ERA and touting a 0.95 WHIP.
The encouraging tone from New York Mets fans is refreshing. In 2023, those same fans saw their team's fortunes go upside down. The Mets finished with a record of 75-87, the eighth-worst in MLB, despite laying claim to baseball's largest payroll.
After the season ended, the Mets parted ways with both manager Buck Showalter and GM Billy Eppler. With both positions now vacant, Stearns has been given a blank slate to recreate the team in his image.
The former General Manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, David Stearns' abilities in the front office are doubted by very few.
David Stearns is making Mets fans excited again
When the New York Mets traded Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, the two most expensive pitchers in history, fans could only watch and silently weep. With the high-profile string of trades, Mets fans knew that they were in for a long and difficult rebuild.
However, with Stearns at the helm, fans seem to be far more trusting than they ever were during Eppler. While Murfee may or may not work out, at least Stearns appears to have the fanbase on his side for now.
