RVH - Moneyball to MetBall: How Paul DePodesta’s Return Illuminates the Mets’ Modern Transformation

 

Andy McCullough’s November 2025 profile of Paul DePodesta — returning to baseball after a decade away — functions as more than a reflection on one executive re-entering the sport. It’s a lens into how dramatically baseball has evolved since the original Moneyball era, and why the Mets’ current transformation under David Stearns is both necessary and overdue. 

DePodesta’s hiring underscores a core truth: the analytical revolution he helped create has since been rebuilt into something far more sophisticated, scientific, and development-driven. It is precisely this evolution that the Mets, after years of stagnation, are finally embracing with clarity and purpose.

The Game Outgrew Moneyball — and the Mets Lagged Behind

The Athletic article highlights the sheer velocity of baseball’s innovation curve during the decade DePodesta spent in the NFL. In that time, the league experienced seismic shifts in data, coaching, pitch design, player development, and evaluation. 

Ten years ago, teams still debated whether you could meaningfully improve MLB pitchers’ arsenals; today, induced vertical break, horizontal sweep, tilt efficiency, and biomechanical tuning are standard components of a pitcher’s identity. 

Ten years ago, 20-year-olds rarely debuted outside of generational talents; today’s prospects arrive polished, tech-trained, and analytically literate. Ten years ago, defense was a soft proxy; today it’s quantifiable to the inch.

McCullough’s interviews with MLB executives paint a consistent picture: nothing that was “true” during Moneyball’s prime remains universally true today. The sport moved from exploiting market inefficiencies to engineering player performance. It is no longer about identifying undervalued assets — it’s about designing the assets yourself.

This evolution also highlights something uncomfortable for Mets fans: while the league was transforming, the Mets were not.

The Pre-Cohen Stagnation

Before Steve Cohen purchased the team in late 2020, the Mets were structurally outmatched. Their scouting, development, analytics, and sports science operations lagged behind organizations like the Dodgers, Astros, Rays, and Guardians. Ownership instability, chronic underinvestment, and a reliance on traditionalist leadership left the franchise operating with outdated tools in a modern environment.

The early Cohen years brought meaningful upgrades: improved infrastructure, more analytic hires, and massive spending to bridge gaps in roster quality. But the front office remained fragmented. Sandy Alderson’s return — stabilizing in some ways — also froze the organization in a hybrid state: part old-guard methodology, part modern ambition, with no coherent operating system linking the two. Leadership turnover, one-year philosophies, and a lack of organizational alignment stalled transformation.

The Stearns Acceleration

This is why DePodesta’s return is such a sharp parallel to David Stearns. DePodesta must reacclimate to a sport that moved forward without him. Stearns, by contrast, is the embodiment of that modern evolution.

In just two years, Stearns has given the Mets what the article argues all winning teams must possess:

1. A unified, vertically integrated player development philosophy
Stearns dismantled siloed structures and rebuilt a consistent hitting/pitching language from the Dominican Academy to Citi Field. The Mets now operate in the continuum McCullough describes: development doesn’t end at Triple-A; it accelerates in the majors.

2. Coaching staffs aligned with modern baseball reality
The Athletic piece emphasizes how coaching has changed: fluency in biomechanics, data translation, pitch and swing design is now more important than past MLB playing experience. Stearns’ new hires reflect exactly that shift — young, analytically fluent coaches who can translate TrackMan and Hawkeye data into actionable adjustments.

3. A modern pitching philosophy
The Mets’ new direction mirrors Peter Bendix’s insight that pitchers can now be reshaped, not just managed. Under Stearns, the Mets have embraced lab-based development, movement profiling, and individualized pitch-design pathways.

4. Organizational professionalism and stability
After years of churn, Stearns has reintroduced predictability and methodical strategic planning. His presser highlighted a clear, multi-year organizational operating plan — the exact opposite of the reactive, patchwork approach that preceded him.

5. A commitment to internal talent acceleration
The Athletic article notes how younger, better-prepared players now move quickly. Stearns’ philosophy — get younger, get more athletic, and fix the development pipeline — aligns directly with where the league has moved.

The Convergence Point

Viewed together, McCullough’s article and the Stearns presser describe a single arc:
the evolution from Moneyball to Developmental Baseball — and the Mets finally stepping fully into the modern era.

DePodesta’s return is a reminder of how much the game has changed. Stearns’ Mets are proof that the organization is no longer behind that change but actively building toward the frontier of it.

Where Moneyball once looked for inefficiencies, the Mets are now building the kind of system that creates them.

And for the first time in a long time, the Mets aren’t chasing the smartest teams in baseball — they’re starting to look like one.