A is for Arrogance

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Here is what the Mets and Red Sox lead their leagues in … arrogance.

For their baseball bosses – David Stearns of the Mets, and Craig Breslow of the Red Sox – it is either their way or the highway; in the case of the Mets that would be the Van Wyck Expressway and in the case of the Red Sox that is the Mass Pike, the road Giancarlo Stanton homered onto in the Yankees’ 4-0 win over Boston on Tuesday night.

On that night, the Mets somehow managed to lose their 12th straight game, blowing a 3-0 lead. Mets fans want to send Stearns packing on the Van Wyck. It was Stearns’ handpicked save savior Devin Williams, who failed miserably with the Yankees the year before, who lost that game 5-3 to the Twins by not retiring any of the five batters he faced in the ninth. Williams sports a 9.95 ERA — but the beard looks sharp.

I said it at the time, Pete Alonso ruined Williams when he hit that NLDS-winning three-run home run in 2024 in Milwaukee. The right-hander hasn’t been the same since, but in all his arrogant wisdom Stearns elected to give the 31-year-old Williams a three-year $45 million contract to pitch for the Mets after failing with the Yankees in a face your fears contract. Williams was booed off the field Tuesday night by Mets fans, who have waited 40 years and counting for their third World Championship.

When Stearns was hired, I wrote “be careful what you wish for Mets fans” because of what I had heard from some people who had worked for him in Milwaukee. Given Casino Steve Cohen’s money, Mets fans thought the resurgence of the team was going to be a slam dunk.

There are no slam dunks in MetsLand.

It has been well documented how Stearns tore the heart and soul from the Mets, getting rid of Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and Edwin Diaz.

And that was arrogance too. Stearns holds a political science degree from Harvard. He knows baseball better than you Mets fans.

Much like another Ivy Leaguer in the Red Sox’ Craig Breslow, who was a relief pitcher in the majors after graduating from Yale with a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. He knows better than you Red Sox fans.

The central theme of molecular biochemistry is the relationship between structure of biological macromolecules and their physiological function.

Somehow, in baseball terms, the way I’m reading how he has built these Red Sox, that means you don’t need any power hitters, especially after sending Rafael Devers away for nothing. You can make up the loss of power by hiring hitting gurus from industrial parks while keeping Hall of Fame hitters like Jim Rice from talking to your hitters.

Again, that is just my layperson’s interpretation of what I am seeing in Boston.

Players and coaches are sent packing because Stearns and Breslow both want to be instrumental in reshaping the game, two monster payroll organizations that simply are not any good at baseball.

Players and coaches are sent packing because Stearns and Breslow both want to be instrumental in reshaping the game, two monster payroll organizations that simply are not any good at baseball.

The Mets could have easily afforded to keep Alonso (38 home runs and 126 RBI in 2025) and Nimmo (25 home runs and 92 RBI), two home grown players. The Red Sox could have easily afforded to keep Alex Bregman or sign a real slugger like Alonso, but both teams’ baseball chiefs know better than that.

Here is a small example of what I mean by reinventing the game and it is a small thing, but it tells you so much about the leadership ways of New Age Arrogance.

A video surfaced the other day of a Met fielder taking feeds to his chest from a machine run by a coach, with another coach watching in front of the dugout, not on the diamond. Again, this was done on the grass in front of the dugout. The machine put the ball in the same spot every time for the catch. A coaching friend of mine saw this and was immensely irritated, just another example of re-inventing the game.

By the way, Stearns changed out Carlos Mendoza’s entire coaching staff this season. So, this is what they want from above. This passes for instruction these days instead of real ballfield fungo sweat equity.

My baseball friend said in disgust: “They have a whole field in front of them. Why are they doing it on the grass. You have a whole f— field, use the field. They don’t use the field for anything.’’

Watch any game and that is obvious. Simple plays come up and fielders are baffled.

This is a great example of what they call “eyewash.’’ Essentially, busy work and done in a new fashion to wow the uninitiated.

My coach friend calls BS on it.

Stearns also is a big believer in the Nerd theory that anyone can play anywhere, a theory developed by people who can’t play anywhere.

It seems like most of the Mets are out of position. That is happening a lot in Boston, too. For the Mets, Bo Bichette, a middle infielder is playing third. Jorge Polanco was playing first, somewhere he has never really played, until he got hurt, and now he is out. Confused Brett Baty (I believe he was the fielder in the eyewash drill) is playing everywhere except third base, his natural position. It goes on and on. And that is part of the problem.

Instead of working on the field on these things, which was done for decades, there is now only some half-hearted side work.

And PFP has never been worse, the lowlights are everywhere. My favorite this week was Tiger pitcher Jack Flaherty totally screwing up a play at third where the baserunner was dead to rights on a bad bunt back to Flaherty, but on Boston Marathon Monday Flaherty did not run Boston’s Caleb Durbin back to third. Durbin was halfway down the line, instead Flaherty panicked and made a terrible, off-balance T-ball throw back in the general direction of the third baseman, allowing the runner to score. That is what happens when you don’t practice plays or only practice them at quarter speed, you know, like all the quarter zips the Nerds wear.

Quarter speed on time-tested drills, and quarter zips, they go hand in hand these days in Major League Baseball.

Remember that constant of a veteran coach who could hit a fungo at any speed to his infielders? A metric reader coach has replaced him.

Like I said, it is a small point, but really it is a big point and is a big reason for the atrocious fielding we see on a nightly basis.

Red Sox left-fielder Roman Anthony made an equally terrible throw from short left the other night that helped cost the Red Sox a game; and as Jim Rice noted, Durbin the third baseman did not help the situation with cement feet not going to his left to try to stop the errant throw from going to the backstop. Baseball people see that. Nerds in the front office and at the ballpark and at home don’t.

Fielders don’t work at it anymore. A team taking a pro pre-game infield is never done anymore.

Flaherty’s error is one way for the Red Sox to score, though.

Scoring runs is their big problem. Much like the Mets. The arrogance of knowing it all really shows itself in that category. Heading into Wednesday night’s play, the Mets are dead last in runs scored with 75. The Red Sox are 26th with 89 runs. Boston is dead last in home runs with 13, the Mets are 26th with 17.

Who knew that when you get rid of your power hitters you would have trouble scoring runs and slugging?

Who knew that when you get rid of your sluggers you would not be able to slug?

The Mets are dead last in slugging percentage at .332. The Red Sox are next to last at .338.

Evidently Ivy League wizard Nerds did not know.

You know who knew? Veteran baseball men.

An entertaining pleasure is to watch the Red Sox postgame show on NESN and see a seething Jim Rice sitting there trying to deal with the absurdities of the New Age Nerd game, which has been around long enough now to show what a sham it is.

Tuesday night Tom Caron, playing the role of a good home team host, asked Rice how it was going to change for the Red Sox after this latest shutout, and Rice shot back: “How is it going to change when you don’t have any home run hitters?’’

Rice, who blasted 382 home runs over his career while hitting .298 also said something about the Red Sox Driveline hitters constantly hitting “four hoppers up the middle, not driving the ball.’’

Will Middlebrooks knowingly chimed in about the Red Sox hitters being “over-saturated with numbers.’’

That is why they are getting beat by fastballs.

Baseball men know the issues.

Arrogant Ivy League baseball chiefs act like they have all the answers. They clearly don’t as they continue to pull the wool over the eyes of their number crunching billionaire owners. It’s quite the show within The Show.

I want to give the Yankees credit here for running on the Red Sox, a new interesting wrinkle to the Yankees offense. They have figured out that shortstop Trevor Story can’t make a strong throw home on relays. Get the merry-go-round going.

Considering their overall lack of power and lack of arm strength in the field, the Red Sox look like that scrawny kid on the beach who got sand kicked in his face from the cartoons of my past.

It is not a good look.

But BresBot has all the answers, same as Stearns. It is like they don’t see what is right in front of them. Right in front of those who truly know the game.

As one longtime baseball man, a former pitcher, told me this week of the craziness of it all: “Nobody pays attention to anything anymore. It’s everywhere. And they call it parity; actually, we’ve reached mediocrity, and managers and coaches want to be every player’s friend. Pitchers don’t run anymore and they constantly get hurt, Sonny Gray has another hamstring injury. We used to run the poles. One day I ran 100 poles.’’

That’s foul pole to foul pole, something that is not done in today’s game.

The arrogance abounds.