David Stearns spoke on the dais for half an hour before he answered questions in breakout groups. He chatted with TV reporters for a while before stopping in with print/digital media, with whom he talked for about another 18 minutes.

There were fun anecdotes about his growing up in Manhattan and sneaking into games at Shea Stadium. There were hints dropped about his very-early plans for Pete Alonso, making it sound as if he’s on the trade block. He described his ideal manager and a perhaps lengthy search to find Buck Showalter’s successor.

What he did not suggest, in any way, was that he was arriving as a savior. There were no proclamations that the bad times in Queens were over or that a World Series was soon on the way.

A significant takeaway from Stearns’ introduction as the new Mets president of baseball operations was his acknowledgement that he is not a wizard who will wave a wand and fix everything. He hopes he is bringing experience and wisdom but not an elixir for all that ails the club.

“I also want to dispel any notion that there’s any magic formula to this — that there are shortcuts or there’s a secret sauce,” Stearns said as part of his news conference on Monday. “There isn’t.”

As Steve Cohen — the guy who bought the team and immediately said he would be disappointed “if I don’t win a World Series in the next 3-5 years” — sat next to him, Stearns offered no guarantee of greatness. In fact, his résumé does not truly include greatness.

He ran the Brewers from 2015-22 and, while unquestionably successful, the team never won a title and only advanced as far as the NLCS (and only advanced that far once). With Milwaukee, he was hailed particularly for his ability to find and maximize pitching talent, a skill typically shrouded in seeing and analyzing what others can’t see or can’t analyze.

But if he is a pitching whisperer, he is not shouting about it. He is not assuring that the Mets will become a pitching factory. He is more assuring he will be a good boss to his underlings, which is significant for a team that has had bad bosses.

“There aren’t certainties in baseball. There are no guarantees of results,” Stearns said from Citi Field, his new home. “But I think we can guarantee that we’re going to work really hard. I think we can guarantee that we’re going to explore every single angle to make our team better. And I think we can guarantee an environment here for everyone associated with the Mets — our players, our staff, coaches, front office here and really around the world — an environment where they feel connected to the overarching mission of the organization and where they feel empowered to affect the direction of our organization.

“And it’s been my experience and certainly my observation that when we do those things well and when we focus on those types of things, that generally leads to success and results.”

If Cohen’s first years running the Mets revolved around results — all technically failures because they did not deliver the World Series he sought — maybe the Stearns era will be known for the process.

The process, of course, is a loaded term in sports and one frequently used by executives who don’t want to be measured by unflattering records. Continually building for the future tends to minimize the present and can help executives lobby for the long-term stability they want, even if it’s not always the stability they deserve.

Take a look at Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, who began with the dreaded line from any executive toward the company’s customers — “We’re actually doing the fanbase a favor” — to explain why Seattle likely would not seek star-level players this offseason:

“We’re actually doing the fanbase a favor in asking for their patience to win the World Series while we continue to build a sustainably good roster,” Dipoto told reporters Tuesday, as if being ambitious and spending money in hopes of a title is a negative.

Stearns, to his credit, acknowledged that Cohen’s wallet is a large positive. His favoring the process over results might be a departure from Cohen’s early vision, but it aligns with how the Mets have acted over the past few years and notably at the past two trade deadlines — last year, they refused to mortgage their future; this year, they mortgaged their present to help their future. They are trying to build for the long haul. Yes, Stearns listed a World Series as a goal, but he did so with “truly sustainable competitiveness,” too.

Those are his hopes — and not his promises.

So what do we expect from a person who 1) does not vow immediate fixes; 2) strives to be a good boss for all in the organization; and 3) eyes prolonged success above all?

The guess here is we can expect Stearns to be as thorough as possible before making any decision, particularly in his early days. His first official week as a member of the organization was set to include meetings with the coaching staff, players and the “entire baseball operations group,” he said.

“I need to learn about the people,” said Stearns, who has a lot of people to learn.

Maybe his managerial search can be expedited a bit after the Brewers were eliminated Wednesday night, thus enabling Craig Counsell to hit the open market, but Stearns has suggested it will be an exhaustive process and might be a while before he settles on a manager. It certainly sounds as if an Alonso decision is not on the front-burner.

The Mets’ new boss is promising to think and learn and communicate more than he is promising to win immediately. Don’t be surprised if the Mets take their time before reaching any major decision this offseason.

Today’s back page

The third rail

Evan Neal is going down a path that never leads to glory, then quickly tried to redirect himself.

The 2022 No. 7 overall pick has heard the boos directed at the Giants’ offensive line — directed at himself — during a miserable start to the season. In Neal’s mind, surely, he is playing hard, is developing as a right tackle and is being booed by onlookers who should be supporting him.

During Monday’s embarrassing home loss to the Seahawks, Neal raised his arm and gestured toward the crowd.

“They were booing us, so I said, ‘Boo louder!’” Neal told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday.

He kept going, firing back at Giants fans.

“Why would a lion concern himself with the opinion of a sheep?” Neal said. “The person that’s commenting on my performance, what does he do? Flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere?”

It recalls the thumbs-down popularized by Javier Baez, who had to apologize for initiating a gesture that was meant to respond to booing Mets fans.

Players who fight back against their own team’s fans either relent or are shipped far away from those fans, which Neal — or someone close to him — seemed to realize.

“I am wrong for lashing out at the fans who are just as passionate and frustrated as I am,” Neal wrote Wednesday night on social media. “I let my frustrations in my play + desire to win get the best of me. I had no right to make light of anyone’s job and I deeply regret the things I said.

“We are working day in and day out to grow as a team and this was an unnecessary distraction. I apologize.”

The 1-3 Giants, who visit Miami and Buffalo the next two weekends, are fighting too much and too poorly to create additional opponents.

By the time they return to MetLife Stadium for Week 7, you wonder how many fans will be there — and how they will respond to Neal.

Inside the G League grind

It was around the third leg of a flight into Sioux Falls when the basketball writer Alex Squadron realized he was really living the minor league grind. He spent the 2021-22 season embedded with the G League’s Birmingham Squadron, the Pelicans’ affiliate, chronicling their highs and lows and individual journeys. His book, “Life in the G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA,” is out this week.

Squadron spoke with The Post’s Jonathan Lehman about the inspiration for a book about the G League, the surprises he discovered in his reporting and an ex-Knick who’s waiting for his shot. (The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.)

What gave you the idea for this book? And how did the project take shape and change over time?

Squadron: I’d been working for SLAM and just covering the basketball world at large for a handful of years, and was always surprised at how little attention was paid to the G League, especially since every year the league was growing and movement back and forth between the NBA was increasing as well. And you had all these guys coming from the G League going on to play massive roles in the NBA like Alex Caruso, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Seth Curry, Gary Payton II.

And so the inspiration was really: No one knows what goes on in the G League. No one’s … documented that pursuit of the NBA dream in the same way that, you know, books about minor league baseball have done.

I kind of knew in order to write about life in the G League, I had to really live life in G League, kinda go through the grind and experience it for myself.

So I just reached out to a team in Birmingham. It was a first-year team, and they just so happened to coincidentally be named the Birmingham Squadron, so that was really kind of an interesting choice [laughs]. I explained the idea to them and just said, like, “Is there any chance you guys would let me follow you for a season and be completely embedded?” They were totally on board with it.

So I moved from New York to Birmingham and spent the next six, seven months embedded with the team and getting to know the players and the coaches and trying to capture that pursuit of the NBA.

What was something that surprised you when you got behind the scenes there in terms of what it’s really like in the day-to-day, or a moment that jumped out at you from that experience of being embedded?

Squadron: I think there’s just a huge misconception about what NBA teams — coaches, scouts, executives — are looking for in the G League. I think that [among] fans, especially, but also journalists and writers who focus primarily on the NBA, there’s a tendency to think the top players, meaning the guys who scored the most points or the guys who are the stars of the G League, are the ones that are gonna get called up. And you realize pretty quickly, the messaging from coaches in the G League to the players is: “Your path to the NBA is through a very specific role.” And the guys who tend to make it are not the leading scorers; it’s the guys who don’t make mistakes, do the little things.

A player like Jose Alvarado, who’s from New York, who picks up 94 feet and is just like a pest on defense. He’s not the most talented player in the G League, he’s not the guy who’s gonna score 30 points, but that’s a very specific role and every NBA team is looking for a guy who can play like Alvarado or like Pat Beverley.

When I think about the G League, a thing that feels very different to me versus minor league baseball is the best baseball prospects, the top picks in the draft, the guys who are superstars, they go to the minor leagues, and in the NBA, they don’t do that, they skip it. How much of that dynamic did you observe?

Squadron: I think what was really fascinating is just the dynamic of a G League locker room. I think you expect that there’s gonna be a lot of fireworks because you have so many players all chasing the exact same goal and essentially all competing with each other and all coming from different positions, whether it’s coming down, being the guy who is the top prospect who’s now trying to reprove himself, being the unknown guy who was playing overseas and is now trying to make a name for himself in the G League. Or [Joe Young], one of the guys I followed, fell out of the NBA and was trying to get back.

You expect there to be a lot of tension …  you know, fights and a lot of people … going for a few select spots; they’re teammates, but they’re competing with each other. And what you realize is like because everybody has the same dream and the same goal, there’s like a unique kind of camaraderie in the G League. Everybody’s just rooting for each other to make it. It’s really refreshing to see.

One of the central characters in your book is someone whom hardcore Knicks fans might remember: Jared Harper. Tell me a little bit about following him and what you got to learn about him during your time with the Squadron.

Squadron: Jared is just an incredibly talented player. I think the coach for the Squadron and most coaches that I talked to felt very strongly that he’s an NBA-caliber player. He was on a two-way contract with the Knicks [in 2020-21] and was a star for the Westchester Knicks — he was an all-G League first team player the season he spent with the Knicks. And his story is he’s undersized, and he has always kind of been overlooked because of that. He became a star at Auburn and helped lead them to the Final Four.

I think my reporting and the time I spent with him, just really drove home the idea that there are so many guys with talent to make it. And he’s one that when he’s gotten opportunities in the NBA, he’s thrived. He played a bunch of games in the NBA and has put up impressive numbers [averaged 7.4 points in five Pelicans games in 2021-22]. And it really just underscores how difficult it is to make it, how much luck, timing and opportunity plays into it.

Ceders never prosper?

The Rangers swept the Rays in the wild-card round to advance to an ALDS matchup against the Orioles. Though a two-game sample is tiny, maybe it can serve as the beginning of a morality tale.

It is always nice when teams are rewarded for trying.

The Rangers, in pushing its chips all-in, were busy at the trade deadline and added Jordan Montgomery, who threw seven scoreless innings in Game 1, and Aroldis Chapman, who covered another inning without being touched.

Still in the wings is deadline pickup Max Scherzer, who threw a bullpen session Wednesday and is building up to be an option in the next rounds.

The Rays, who espouse a version of Dipoto’s never-go-all-in philosophy, at the deadline essentially only added Aaron Civale, a pitcher who did not appear in the wild-card series.

Other playoff results:

• The Twins knocked off the Blue Jays to complete a sweep in what has begun as a poor postseason for the AL East.

• The Phillies smashed the Marlins, setting up a power-heavy showdown with the Braves.

• The Diamondbacks dusted the Brewers, so no wild-card series will need a third game on Thursday.

What we’re reading

⚾ Mets manager Buck Showalter met resistance from GM Billy Eppler when he tried to bench Daniel Vogelbach, a source told The Post’s Mike Puma.

🏀 Can RJ Barrett reach another level? A look at the Knicks forward’s ceiling entering his fifth NBA season.

🏈 It’s Breece Hall time for the Jets.

⚾ “I think the players need to be represented,” Gerrit Cole told The Post’s Greg Joyce, about him and Aaron Judge participating in the Yankees’ offseason deep dive.

🤸‍♀️ Simone Biles led the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to a record seventh straight gold medal at world championships.

🏀 On Thursday, the WNBA will announce an expansion team in the Bay Area, bringing the league to 13 teams.