Mets fire manager Carlos Mendoza after disappointing start to 2026 season
The team with Major League Baseball's highest payroll and one of its worst records is looking for a new manager.
The New York Mets fired skipper Carlos Mendoza on Friday, June 26 with the club mired in last place in the National League East with a 34-47 record, 15 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves. Andy Green, who managed the San Diego Padres from 2016-2019 and was the club's senior vice president of baseball development, will take over as interim manager, although Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Friday Green will return to the front office at the end of the season and a full managerial search will begin.
The Mets hired Mendoza, the former New York Yankees bench coach, before the 2024 season, giving him his first major-league managerial job at the age of 43, with Stearns calling him "the right person for this job."
But after he guided the Mets to the National League Championship Series during his rookie season, the team has fallen far short of the high expectations its record payroll has fueled.
Despite signing free agent outfielder Juan Soto to a 15-year, $765 million contract before last season, the Mets posted an 83-79 record and missed the playoffs.
This season, after losing slugger Pete Alonso and closer Edwin Diaz to free agency, the Mets' struggles compounded with Soto going on the injured list with a calf strain after only eight games.
In addition, Mendoza had been working this season in the final year of his original three-year contract – with the Mets conspicuously declining to pick up the team option for 2027.
"Mendy gave everything he had to this organization for the last two and a half years," Stearns said at a Friday afternoon Citi Field press conference. "He’s a talented leader. He’s a real good baseball man. Above all else he’s an outstanding person. Despite all of our efforts, Mendy’s included, we haven’t been able to get this going this year. I take responsibility for that.
"We were steadfast in our support for Carlos because we believed in Carlos. We believed that collectively, with him helping us lead this, we were going to turn this around. And we haven’t. In some cases, it’s gotten worse. When it happens, at some point you have to make a change. There wasn’t one observation. It was time. And so we did this."
Many Mets fans would suggest it is Stearns that has fallen short, with several splashy offseason transactions – such as the trade for former Milwaukee Brewers ace Freddy Peralta and signing of infielder Bo Bichette to a $42 million annual salary – have blown up. Yet it is often the manager who takes the fall in such situations, and Mendoza joins Philadelphia's Rob Thomson and Boston's Alex Cora as big-market managers who have been fired this season.
Mendoza was on the hot seat almost immediately this season, as the club suffered a 12-game losing streak that left the club in a 7-16 hole on April 21. Health did him no favors: All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor has been limited to 35 games, while Soto missed 19 games with calf and back injuries. The Mets are 3-16 without Soto in the lineup.
The club rebounded to go 16-12 in May, but regressed again, losing nine of 12 games - including the last six in a row - leading up to Mendoza's firing. A six-error game was included in that freefall.
"It’s very difficult for all of us to understand how we have made the type of mistakes on the field we have made," says Stearns Friday. "It’s not characteristic of the types of players making those mistakes. And we’ve got to do better."
Carlos Mendoza's managerial record
- 2024: 89-73 (3rd in NL East, wild-card playoff berth, lost to L.A. Dodgers in NLCS)
- 2025: 83-79 (2nd in NL East, no playoffs)
- 2026: 34-47 (5th in NL East)
Most recent New York Mets managers, records
The New York Mets have won five National League pennants and two World Series in the franchise's 65-year history. Here are the records of the five managers they've had since their last World Series appearance in 2015.
- Terry Collins (2011-2017): 551-583 (.486), 2 playoff appearances, 1 NL pennant
- Mickey Callaway (2018-2019): 163-161 (.503), 0 playoff appearances
- Luis Rojas (2020-2021): 103-119 (.464), 0 playoff appearances
- Buck Showalter (2022-2023): 176-148 (.543), 1 playoff appearance
- Carlos Mendoza: (2024-2026): 206-199, (.517), 1 playoff appearance, 1 NL pennant