Laura Albanese: Mets' Andy Green can bring player development skills into interim manager position
Interim Mets manager Andy Green looks on against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field on Saturday, June 27, 2026. Credit: Jim McIsaac
ATLANTA — Andy Green made it clear that he hadn’t aspired to sit where Carlos Mendoza once had. And shortly after dismissing Mendoza, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns confirmed that Green is an “interim” in the truest sense of the word. The season will end and a managerial search will commence.
You don’t often see managers embrace lame-duck status with such aplomb, but Green enjoyed working in player development, liked having time for his wife and daughters, and essentially took the job as a favor to the organization.
In other words, Green, who served as the Padres’ manager for four seasons and has since moved on to another tier in his career, doesn’t have anything to prove.
But a week into his tenure, we’re seeing there certainly is something Green can do, and it has the ability to shape the franchise’s future.
See, though Green has fully vacated his previous role of senior vice president of player development, the truth is that player development needs to happen at baseball’s highest level, too.
Green’s success, then, doesn’t really hinge on his win-loss record, but on what he’s able to do with the players he knows best — the ones he helped shepherd through the minors.
We saw the seeds of that Friday when Green allowed A.J. Ewing to take the next step in his progression.
A speedster with excellent bat-to-ball skills, Ewing is more or less an ideal leadoff hitter, but the Mets didn’t want to rush the process, preferring to stash the rookie toward the bottom of the lineup to better protect him as he acclimates to the majors.
On Friday, though, another layer of bubble wrap peeled off. Ewing batted first and Carson Benge, who did an admirable job filling in at leadoff but profiled better as a middle-of-the-order bat, hit fifth.
It didn’t go well for Ewing, though, as he went 0-for-3 before being lifted for pinch hitter Tyrone Taylor in the seventh inning of the Mets’ 5-3 loss to Atlanta.
Add two other things to that: 1. Green already has said he doesn’t intend to move Ewing from centerfield when Luis Robert Jr. returns, and 2. Ewing is expected to get plenty of runway in that leadoff position when the Mets face righthanders.
It is a full immersion experience, one this team wants to go with the rest of the season.
“I don’t know that we’re going to run this back with [lefty] Chris Sale on the mound [Saturday], but I do think we’d love to give him some time to adjust to that spot,” Green said Friday of Ewing’s move up the lineup. “He doesn’t complicate life too much. He’s just going to step up and have his at-bat, and his at-bat profiles really nicely in that spot.”
It makes sense, and it shows why, even with Mendoza gone, the Mets wanted a manager with experience in player development. The season is all but conceded, and if things continue to go south, the primary focus should be on creating as much stability, and as making as much progress as possible, with Ewing, Benge, Christian Scott and Nolan McLean.
All four are varying levels of impressive, but none of the four — even a recently sharp McLean — is fully polished. You see that sometimes with Ewing, who has a .263/.346/.394 slash line in 48 games. He’s among the fastest players in baseball (a sprint speed in the 98th percentile, according to Baseball Savant), but though he was a highly adept baserunner in the minors, he’s scuffled a little here — sometimes tentative, sometimes too aggressive. The result? Despite his speed, his baserunning value this season has been a net zero.
Instead of easing off, though, a move to the leadoff spot means his baserunning choices will carry more heft. The man hitting in front of Juan Soto can’t run into outs, and Green knows that.
Improving will mean Ewing “trusting his instincts,” he said.
“You can get into a little place where you doubt yourself a little bit, you doubt your timing, you doubt your read, and when doubt is part of the equation and something you have to do really fast, it makes it really hard to steal bases,” Green said.
“I don’t think he’s sitting over there second-guessing himself nonstop, but he hasn’t found rhythm here recently, and I think he is going to, in the long run, he’s going to find that rhythm, he’s going to steal bases that will be a part of his profile in his game.”
He added that he will speak to Ewing about the responsibility that comes with his new role.
“I think there are certain times you are obligated to stay on first base when Juan Soto is hitting,” Green said. “We will make sure A.J. understands that full well.”
So rather than make it easier for Ewing to play loose, they’re making it harder now so it can be easy later. It also suits Ewing’s personality.
“I’ve had fun playing this game since I was 3 years old,” he said last month. “Obviously, I want to have fun every single game, but I don’t want the fun to ever leave.”
Ewing’s default is a player who doesn’t overthink, one who instinctually plays loose. Sure, no one is having a whole lot of fun right now — not with the Mets a season-worst 16 games below .500 and 11 1⁄2 games out of a wild-card spot. But just because a season is lost doesn’t mean there isn’t something to find.
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.
