This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
NEW YORK -- No two managerial situations are identical, which is why it would be unfair to compare Carlos Mendoza’s situation to that of Alex Cora, whom the Red Sox dismissed over the weekend, or to that of anyone else in baseball whose job may be at risk.
Fair or not, though, these questions naturally surface when a team with expectations as high as the Mets loses 15 of 17 at such an early juncture.
“The only thing I’m worried about here is I’ve got to get the guys going,” Mendoza said Sunday after his Mets were swept in a doubleheader by the Rockies. “I get it. I get it. I mean, it sucks. And I know the questions will continue to come up. But my job is to find a way to get those guys out of the funk. That’s the bottom line.”
Multiple team officials did not respond to queries on Sunday regarding Mendoza’s job status. Given how the Mets have played, they would be well within their rights to take Monday’s off-day to consider it.
Yet, inside the walls of Citi Field, many officials and players have consistently defended their manager. Yes, the Mets have lost regularly under his stewardship. Yes, they missed the playoffs last year despite one of the largest payrolls in Major League history. Yes, they appear destined for a similar fate this year.
Outside of the sorts of in-game quibbles that every manager receives, however, what exactly are Mendoza’s sins? Is it his fault that Bo Bichette is slumping early in his first year in New York? Is it Mendoza’s fault that Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor have played just seven full games together? Is it his fault that no one at the back end of the Mets’ rotation has proven reliable? Is it his fault that the entire offense outside of Soto has struggled?
Is it Mendoza’s fault that the roster, which president of baseball operations David Stearns constructed, has failed to click?
“We’re more worried about our job,” Soto said. “As players, we have to perform. Definitely, this is not Mendy’s fault or David’s fault. They definitely put a great team together, and we have to be the ones that go out there and perform at the end of the day. I don’t think he’s been doing anything wrong. I think he’s been doing a great job as a manager. He’s been moving the pieces and putting the pieces in the right spot. We haven’t come through. It’s not his fault at all.”
Indeed, the Mets have shuffled both their roster and their lineup in the early going. They have made changes to their bullpen and to their rotation. None of it has made a lick of difference, and at this point the team has no obvious sparkplug-type player to call up from the Minors. Moreover, impact trades almost never happen at this point in the season.
So the Mets have two choices. Either they can stick with Mendoza -- Stearns’ handpicked choice for manager, whom he is said to genuinely like and respect -- and hope things turn around, or they can fire him and hope an interim replacement does better.
But what, exactly, would an interim manager do differently?
Asked before Sunday’s doubleheader sweep about Cora’s ouster in Boston, Mendoza said he considers Cora one of the best managers in baseball, but acknowledged: “Hey, it’s a business, right?”
Cora’s fate, Mendoza knows, is one that could befall him, too. But until or unless it does, all he can do is continue working to improve the Mets.
“You watch film, you talk to players individually, support them, encourage them, challenge them,” Mendoza said. “There’s a lot that goes behind the scenes as a manager, that you’ve got to stay positive, obviously. It’s just finding ways to get the guys going.”