What worries me is that quote in the SNY link about Stearns:...I think he'd rather have grinders than stars.I know people love to envision a rah-rah team of no-names triumphing like in a sports movie, but I remain firmly convinced the best way to win in Real Life sports is to sign or draft big stars. They offer the greatest value per roster spot and their production is much more reliable than betting on reclamation projects.This may be slightly less true in baseball than it is in basketball (a wholly star-driven sport) and football (where you're nowhere if you lack a star QB and talent at other elite positions). But I think it still applies. Let's look at some of the recent World Series teams. Who were their best players? Did they have a lot of stars?2024-25 Dodgers: Ohtani, Freeman, Betts, etc. etc.2025 Blue Jays: Vlad Jr, Bichette2024 Yankees: Judge, Soto2023 Rangers: Semien and Seager were each 7-8 WAR players2023 D-Backs: K. Marte, Carroll. Weak example, but also a notably weak World Series team.2022 Astros: Verlander, Altuve, Yordan Alvarez2022 Phillies: Schwarber, Realmuto, two top-notch starters in Nola and Wheeler.2021 Braves: Freeman, Riley, Fried2021 Astros: Correa, AltuveAnd that's just the full seasons since the Pandemic. You can keep going back, but I don't think you'll find a lot of World Series teams without any major stars. Even the worst records, the '87 Twins and '06 Cardinals, had Puckett and Pujols, respectively. The 2003 Marlins, perhaps the most out-of-nowhere champions I can recall, had I-Rod and a young Miguel Cabrera.Not to mention, the last Mets champions in '86 were built around Hernandez and Gary Carter, two of the biggest stars in the game brought in via trade, in addition to Gooden and Strawberry, who were huge stars at the time even if their careers didn't take the best path.True, the Mets still have Soto and Lindor. They don't exactly lack stars. But you're competing with the Dodgers, and I'm not aware of an upper limit. It's not like the Big Red Machine suffered star overload from having Bench, Morgan, Rose, and Foster. It's not like Ruth would have been better off with some scrappy underdogs instead of Gehrig and Lazzeri.I also don't really get the terror of long contracts. Bill James wrote in the Baseball Abstract way back in the 80's, when the Padres didn't want to give out big contracts, basically about how silly it was to unilaterally rule out that method of securing talent. You've got to give the players something they want, after all, if you want to sign anybody worth mentioning.I'm sure contract flexibility and underrated gamers are key to turning a Milwaukee team into a contender (and winning, well, zero championships)... but a big-market team can just push everybody else aside and sign talent! That's the great thing about being a big-market team!Unless Steve Cohen has given Stearns a lot less leeway with the payroll than we've heard, which I tend to doubt is the case, I think it's just a mistake to bring these small-market principles to a team in New York. Heck yes, sign stars! Sign 'em all to 10-year contracts, and buy them out when they're used up! That's not just smart baseball, it's the American way!

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