David Stearns served as an intern for the Mets in 2008 during Omar Minaya’s solo reign running baseball operations.

You have to designate “solo” because since then this is the checklist of those who have held the title: John Ricco (interim); Sandy Alderson; the interim triumvirate of Minaya, Ricco and J.P. Ricciardi; Brodie Van Wagenen; Jared Porter; Zack Scott (interim); Alderson (interim) and Billy Eppler.

Stearns, a New Yorker who admitted sneaking into Shea Stadium as a diehard young fan, knows this list — voluminous and often humiliating — also stretches to before Minaya. When it comes to hiring this job, the Mets have been Charlie Brown trying to kick the football — relentless and inept. They keep trying and they keep failing.

And here they were trying yet again. This time with by far the most desirable free agent available in this category. Stearns has youth (38). He has the passion for and familiarity with the organization. He had credentials building the small-market Brewers into a long-standing contender. He has the reputation — he did say other teams inquired on his availability without citing which clubs. If you were going to create an individual who could fix the Mets, one version would look exactly like Stearns.

But he also was wise enough to say, “I also want to dispel any notion that there’s any magic formula for this, that there are shortcuts or there’s a secret sauce. There isn’t. There aren’t certainties in baseball. There are no guarantees of results.”

He promised only hard work, open mindedness and a hospitable work environment with the belief that all fostered the best chance to win. To acknowledge Stearns’ talents, Cohen in a team press release cited wide-ranging “skillsets.” Somebody should have recommended a different term, since “skill sets” was once used repeatedly on this kind of day by a different Mets owner (Fred Wilpon) in introducing and describing a different hire (Steve Phillips). This being the Mets and the head of baseball operations job, the term became a long-standing joke.

But what must be understood is that no matter how bumbling the Wilpons were, they always held these gatherings with optimism; with the belief they had hired the right person to direct them past the missteps and underperformance. This is a day, after all, for platitudes and optimism. Except we have all been here and seen all with this organization. And Stearns, with lifelong Mets blood, knows the pathology well.

“Over the last couple of weeks, I thought a lot about my first go-around [in 2008] with the Mets,” Stearns said. “I thought a lot about how much has changed: the owner, our stadium, much of the front office and certainly all the players. But what hasn’t changed is this organization’s quest for truly sustainable competitiveness and, ultimately, our first World Series championship since 1986. I’m here because I believe that’s attainable. That is our goal. And I can assure you we will do everything we can to make it a reality. I’m thrilled to be here. This is my home.”

Cohen had seen how devilish hiring this job could be. His first hire to this position, Porter, lasted 38 days before Cohen canned him when it was learned Porter, in a previous job, had sent unsolicited lurid texts and pictures to a female reporter. Porter’s replacement, Scott, was placed on administrative leave after he was charged with driving while intoxicated. Alderson stepped into the breach, but was Namath as a Ram, the glory days far gone.

When Cohen hired Eppler as GM after the 2021 season, it was with the understanding that ultimately someone would be installed above Eppler. At that point, Cohen had been through enough internal embarrassment and external rejection that he decided he would not fill the job until he felt he could make a no-brain hire.

“That’s what I did,” Cohen said to note his patience in waiting for the right person.

Stearns received a five-year contract with the immediate mission statement to try to contend in 2024 while doing nothing to disrupt Job 1 — to build “sustainable” success (“sustainable” and “alignment” in philosophy were the tenets for the Mets on this day). There had been some industry belief that Stearns would receive an opt-out just in case he did not find “alignment” with Cohen. But there is not one in the contract. Instead, Stearns said via about a dozen phone calls and four face-to-face meetings that often lasted between three to six hours and notably a dinner among Cohen, Stearns and their wives that he recognized he could and wanted to work for Cohen.

“The dream is to win a World Series,” Stearns said. “This is a step toward that. I feel very fortunate and privileged to be here right now. I understand this doesn’t happen, right? You don’t grow up a rabid fan of a team and then one day get to stand at a press conference [as president of baseball ops] … So the fact that it has happened, I recognize how incredible that is.”

So, of course, this begins with the fairytale. The kid from the upper East Side who snuck into Shea and worked for the Mets as an intern coming home to end the succession in this job of humiliation and ineptitude. But the beginning of the fairytale has never been a problem for the Mets. Can Stearns finally help write what has escaped the organization — a happy ending?