David Stearns wants Mets fans to know that he feels their pain. He wants them to know that he'll do "everything we can" to improve the team amid a disappointing first half that led to Friday's dismissal of manager Carlos Mendoza.
But Stearns also knows his words won't necessarily make fans feel any better about the team's situation.
“I understand fans’ skepticism," the Mets' president of baseball operations told reporters Friday. "If I was sitting in the fans’ seat, I would share that."
The Mets came into the season with World Series aspirations. So far, though, their season has been a struggle. They enter Friday with a 34-47 record and in last place in the NL East -- 15 games behind the division-leading Braves. Their season has included such infamies as a 12-game losing streak in April and a six-error game against the Cubs on Wednesday. They've also lost six straight games entering Friday.
Obviously, fans want answers -- and accountability.
"From my perspective, what I can do and what I will do is, for as long as I’m sitting in this seat, work as hard as I can with the people around me to do everything we can to push this organization forward," Stearns said. "And I think we’re going to be able to do that.”
Stearns named Andy Green, the team's vice president of player development, as interim manager. But he also stressed that a significant rebound could take time.
"I understand there’s no magic bullet here, there’s no one change that’s immediately going to turn this around," Stearns said. "This is incremental, this is day to day, this is doing the work every single day to get us back on track."
But Stearns said he believes the Mets can overcome the disappointment of this season and "deliver what we all want."
"I don’t believe that our record on the field this year is indicative of some of the advancements that we’ve made in the organization," he said. "But clearly our record is nowhere good enough.”