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The Milwaukee Brewers had been without a general manager for roughly a month after relieving Doug Melvin of his duties in August. After conducting a lengthy search, the franchise zeroed in on the Houston Astros assistant general manager, naming him to the position on Monday.

Adam McCalvy of MLB.com provided the confirmation from the club a day after Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported Stearns was expected to be named to the position.

The Brewers looked at various candidates, with Rosenthal reporting on Sept. 10 that the Brewers had Dan Kantrovitz at the top of their GM wish list. Kantrovitz has spent roughly a year in Oakland's front office after departing from the St. Louis Cardinals, for whom he served as the director of amateur scouting.

The big task for Stearns now that he's in charge is to improve the team's farm system. While it's improving, Baseball Prospectus ranked it No. 26 to start the 2015 season. Baseball America was slightly higher on Milwaukee but still ranked it No. 19.

Back in April, BP's Matthew Trueblood wrote a good analysis of how Melvin essentially kicked the can down the road in an effort to keep the Brewers contending in the present. Prospects were leveraged for ready-made veterans at the trade deadline, and the team overspent on free agents in the offseason.

As the standings would attest to—Milwaukee is 63-86, last place in the National League Central entering Thursday night—the franchise needs to blow up the roster and start from scratch.

It might be inaccurate to call the Brewers a small-market team, but the best way for them to contend in the future is by identifying cost-controlled talent through the draft, and that will be Stearns' best path to success.