As the dust settled in the wake of the trade deadline on Thursday evening, David Stearns still had one more move to make: hopping on a virtual press conference to answer questions from the media.

On the other side, you have why Stearns was hired by Steve Cohen. His job was not to help the Mets make one playoff or win a division or even a singular title. The idea was to be Dodgers East and make the playoffs, say, eight out of every 10 years or even more and have a shot in all of those seasons to get a parade.