The Mets described a mixture of shock, sadness and confusion Friday afternoon after learning the club had dismissed manager Carlos Mendoza earlier in the day, and appointed farm director Andy Green to take over in the interim. A team meeting was held shortly before David Stearns, the club’s president of baseball operations, addressed the media, and then the group tried to go about their pregame routines as if everything was normal.
“It hurts,” said shortstop Francisco Lindor. “He’s a great man — a great family man — and somebody that we appreciate. We care for him. We were surprised by the news, but obviously, this is a decision for Stearns, and he felt like it was going to be best for the organization at the moment.”
A popular, well-liked skipper, Mendoza played the role of friend, coach and confidant, while still maintaining the respect of an authority figure. A native of Venezuela, he could relate to the struggles of young Latin players who didn’t speak the language and were unfamiliar with the culture. At 46, he was still young enough to get along with the veterans.
He stood up for his players and stood behind them during tough times, while also protecting them from some of the unfair narratives that can spin out of control in New York.
But even the best managers are only as good as the players on the roster, and while yes, the Mets have immense, and expensive, talent on their roster, the cracks in the foundation eventually exposed its subpar construction.
“We love Mendy, and it’s not his fault,” right-hander Christian Scott told the Daily News. “He’s not going out there and pitching and he doesn’t play. But we’ve got to play better. We’re not oblivious to it.”
The Mets knew that a change was needed, but Stearns wasn’t about to fire himself and he couldn’t overhaul the roster. That left a managerial change as the most impactful move they could make — even if it was the most difficult move to make.
“Andy, just by virtue of his experiences, both before he got here and during his time with the Mets, is going to bring something a little bit different,” a visibly emotional Stearns said. “I think for us it was time to try something a little different.”
The rotating door of managers in Queens spins once again. There’s no doubt that a lack of continuity in the front office and in the dugout has prevented the team from making progress in Steve Cohen’s stated goal of winning the World Series within the first five years of his ownership.
It wasn’t all that long ago Buck Showalter was dismissed so Stearns could hire his own manager. It’s fair to allow the new lead executive the chance to choose his own manager, but it also would have been fair to at least talk to Showalter before making a decision, something Stearns did not do. Since Terry Collins moved from the dugout to the front office following the 2017 season, the Mets have fired five managers, including one who didn’t even manage a single game, Carlos Beltran.
And since then, the Mets have gone through several general managers and interim general managers. Cohen chased after Stearns for so long that he may be willing to give more leeway to the club’s first POBO. Back in spring training, the hedge fund billionaire said he had entered into a different phase of his ownership — a more patient phase. He doesn’t want to meddle; he wants to trust the people he hired to do their jobs.
So often, the players on the field are the ones who bear the brunt of the decisions made above them. New voices, new philosophies, new ways of teaching and new sets of data to parse through. The benefit of using Green to finish out the season is that he’s familiar with the team, having worked as the farm director since 2024.
“Every time there’s a move, it is a little bit of a change, and this feels like a change,” Lindor said. “However, Andy’s been in the organization for three years now, so he knows most of the guys here. He understands Stearns, he understands his philosophy, and to be honest, I think he’s probably helped a couple of the younger players [who are in] the big leagues today.”
“A lot of guys have a lot of trust in him, especially on the minor league side with the guys that know him,” Scott said. “He’s a great dude.”
The Mets haven’t decided whether to sell at the trade deadline or not, with Stearns saying their only goal is to win as many games as possible the rest of the season. Firing a manager guarantees nothing, but it’s crucial that the Mets show they’re capable of winning before the end of the season. With a lockout coming, fans who lack trust in the organization could abandon their fandom completely.
“Obviously, this year hasn’t gone the way that we wanted it to go so far, but we do have time left,” Scott said. “The season’s not over yet.”
