Mets sticking with Carlos Mendoza as manager, report says
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza at Citi Field on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
ANAHEIM, Calif. — It was exactly two weeks ago that Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns put his full-throated support behind manager Carlos Mendoza.
“I think Mendy is doing a very good job,” he said in the visitor’s dugout at Wrigley Field. “I think Mendy is putting players in positions to succeed . . . He’s enormously consistent.”
The Mets have gone 3-9 since those comments, to opponents that, entering Friday, had a combined .488 win percentage. But Stearns’ stance has not changed.
“We know our record is not what we want, and we know we are capable of more,” Stearns said Friday, according to MLB.com. “We don’t view this as a manager problem, and we don’t intend to make a change.”
It was Stearns’ most definitive statement yet, and comes on the heels of two early season managerial firings in the Red Sox’s Alex Cora and the Phillies’ Rob Thomson. The Mets have a worse record than both those teams at 10-21, which is the third-worst start in franchise history — worse even than the historically bad inaugural 1962 team, which began the year 12-19 over the first 31 games.
Throughout it all, they’ve been felled by a dormant offense, poor pitching and a slew of high-profile injuries. Juan Soto missed about three weeks with a calf strain and Francisco Lindor could very well be out for months with a calf strain of his own. Jorge Polanco (bursitis, wrist contusion), Luis Robert Jr. (lumbar spine disc hernia) and Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation) are on the IL as well.
Mendoza, who’s in the final year of his contract, has gotten the vociferous support from his players, many of whom have noted that it’s not his fault that they’re not performing up to standard.
“As players, we have to perform,” Soto told reporters last week. “This is not Mendy’s fault or David’s fault. They put a great team together, and we have to be the ones who go out there and perform. I don’t think [Mendoza] has been doing anything wrong. I think he’s been doing a great job as a manager because he’s moving the pieces and putting the pieces in the right spot. We haven’t come through. It’s not his fault at all.”
Lindor and Devin Williams made similar comments after the Mets were swept in Chicago last month, part of a 12-game losing streak.
“He doesn’t swing the bat and he doesn’t throw a baseball,” Williams said. “We’ve been in a lot of these games. It’s been close. Him or somebody else is not affecting that, you know what I mean? If we’re not getting the job done, somebody else is not just going to magically flip a switch and we’re going to get it done. He’s putting guys in good positions. We’re not performing.”
Added Lindor: “He’s done a fantastic job. This is not on him . . . Every coach here is prepared and we have the information. It comes down on us. Mendy is our guy. He’s our leader. He’s in control and he’s done a tremendous job. We just haven’t executed. It would be unfair to put everything on him because at the end of the day, he’s guided the ship in the right direction. We just have to keep on paddling. We’ve got to keep on paddling and execute.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
