Milwaukee Brewers: David Stearns’ 5 best moves in first year

General manager David Stearns took over the Milwaukee Brewers one year ago, and he has already made a tremendous impact.

There’s always uncertainty when a franchise hands the keys over to a relatively unknown general manager like the Milwaukee Brewers did with David Stearns.

When the Brewers named Stearns as the GM last September, he was just 30 years old. That made him the youngest GM in baseball, adding to the skepticism from some fans.

But the Harvard graduate came in with plenty of quality experience, including three seasons as the assistant GM with the Houston Astros. Their franchise developed one of the best farm clubs over the past half decade.

Meanwhile, Stearns has wasted little time making his mark with the Brewers.

Stearns had already made nine trades to acquire 16 players within five months of his hire. A majority of those he acquired were high-upside minor leaguers.

Overall, he hasn’t been shy about trading veterans for youth or taking chances on players that other clubs saw as expendable. Simply put, Stearns looks like the perfect guy for the job.

So which moves among all of them would you rank in the top five in his first year on the job?

Some of the choices are based on projected ability, while others are selected because of the production on the field. Ultimately, all of his transactions will be judged by the end results of the big league club in the future.