David Stearns has met his first mandate magnificently. With the blessing of Steve Cohen, he forged a strategy to prioritize the big picture by not jamming up future payrolls and rosters while trying to make the current collection strong enough to reach the postseason.
He has succeeded. The short-term deals for Harrison Bader, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino have worked superbly, as has the roster churn that brought quality depth with Jose Iglesias and Luis Torrens.
Now Stearns has to honor a group that head-to-head is the best team in New York. That is a season-high five games over .500 and just 1 ¹/₂ games behind Atlanta for the top wild-card spot, with the beat-up Braves coming to Citi Field for four games beginning Thursday.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
