Mets manager candidates: 7 potential replacements for Carlos Mendoza

It’s going to be a lucrative winter for major league managers.

The New York Mets’ firing of Carlos Mendoza on Friday, June 26 marks the third major-market manager to get canned this season, as the third-year skipper took the fall for the club’s poor performance in the face of huge expectations that come with carrying the major league's biggest 2026 payroll.

Now, the Mets join the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies as clubs seeking full-time managers, though interim manager Don Mattingly’s 36-17 performance guiding the Phillies back into contention for the NL East title may certainly thrust his name into the permanent mix, should he desire.

As for the Mets, this is a pressure-packed hire. President of baseball operations David Stearns has taken considerable heat for offseason moves that largely went awry once the lights came on this season; Mendoza was under fire almost immediately, received an April stay of execution and then became easily disposable once the Mets fell to 34-47. Stearns announced Friday that interim manager Andy Green will return to a front office role after helming the Mets dugout the second half of the season.

Now, it will be Stearns facing more heat should the club not turn it around in 2027, and owner Steve Cohen will closely scrutinize this hiring.

Here are seven potential fits in New York as the club looks toward the future:

Alex Cora

No wonder the man felt more blessed than stressed when a dysfunctional Boston Red Sox organization kicked him to the curb after just 27 games.

Cora’s firing was shortly followed by Rob Thomson’s dismissal in Philadelphia, prompting speculation Cora and former Boston boss Dave Dombrowski might consummate a shotgun wedding and bring Cora to Philly.

Yet Cora opted to chill, and now he might enjoy something resembling a bidding war for his services. And the Mets are probably the best fit of all.

Cora is an excellent manager in the dugout and the clubhouse and would excel in handling the New York media, as he did in Boston when he served under three general managers yet established himself as an organizational cornerstone — at least until he and current boss Craig Breslow got sideways.

But the resume remains unblemished — a 620-541 career record, one World Series championship and significant regard in the game.

Cora would also connect nicely with Puerto Rican baseball fans in New York, and his experience handling big-money superstars — from Mookie Betts to Chris Sale to Rafael Devers - would come in handy. Cue up the Mets fan fever dreams of Cora and Zohran Mamdani piloting a float down the Canyon of Heroes.

Carlos Beltrán, Mets special assistant

Wouldn’t this be something?

Beltrán arguably got the worst deal out of the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme, with Cora and A.J. Hinch bouncing back to managerial jobs, every other player skating freely yet Beltrán, a player at the time of the scandal, losing his impending job as Mets manager.

This might be the time to make it right.

Former Mets GM Billy Eppler re-hired Beltrán as a special assistant in February 2023 and he’s stayed aboard into the Stearns era. Lest we forget, Beltrán nearly got the New York Yankees job that went to Aaron Boone before the 2018 season.

Highly regarded and respected still, and that’s before he earned election to the Hall of Fame.

George Lombard, Tigers bench coach

The man has methodically climbed the ranks, from Dodgers coach to Hinch’s No. 2 in Detroit, along the way interviewing for managerial jobs in Detroit and Pittsburgh in 2020 and Miami in 2024.

He now has six years of experience alongside Hinch, helping Detroit to a pair of playoff berths, and could check both the managerial and developmental boxes.

In this scenario, sometime in 2027 Lombard would be managing the Mets while his son, George Jr., is across town manning a spot in the Yankees infield.

Omar Lopez, Astros bench coach

His star rose significantly when he piloted an underdog Venezuela squad to a stunning World Baseball Classic championship in March. Pressure? The New York media pales in comparison to the expectations of piloting his home country through two WBCs.

Lopez has been a key figure in the Astros II resurgence, beginning as a first base coach and then as Joe Espada’s bench coach the past three seasons. The Astros’ midseason rally puts them back in contention, and come October, the Mets hiring the bench coach of a playoff team wouldn’t be a difficult sell.

Rickie Weeks, Brewers special assistant

He served for two seasons as Pat Murphy’s associate manager in Milwaukee before shifting to a role as special assistant in baseball operations and domestic and international scouting. Perhaps that puts Weeks on a more executive track, but helming the Mets is one of the game’s elite jobs, and Stearns knows what he can do.

Brandon Hyde, Rays senior advisor, baseball operations

He’s the most prominent lurker among the half-dozen managers who got axed last year and haven’t returned to the dugout. Hyde saw every angle of the manager’s job in seven seasons with Baltimore, from a grim and cynical rebuild to an eventual rebirth and division title, and then unmet expectations.

Yet money and high-end talent acquisition would not be a problem in New York. Wherever he lands, Hyde will almost certainly benefit from a second-time-around hindsight that many managers enjoy. The lone bullet point missing on his resume is dealing with mega-market conditions and a clubhouse filled with highly-paid superstars.

Ryan Flaherty, Cubs bench coach

A moderate surprise Flash didn’t get one of the many openings last fall, with several clubs opting for surprise hires rather than a proverbial big league manager-in-waiting.

Yet Flaherty would bring ex-player credibility and four seasons as bench coach under his belt, working under Bob Melvin and Craig Counsell. Oddly enough, he replaced Andy Green — now the Mets’ interim manager after Mendoza’s firing — as bench coach with the Cubs.