Carlos Mendoza’s Mets run ended the way so many recent chapters in Queens do: abruptly, with a sour finish and a lot of finger-pointing left in the wreckage.
After last week’s embarrassing series against the Chicago Cubs and the team’s slide into the depths of the wild card standings, the Mets moved on from Mendoza. The announcement arrived in a passive-voice social media post, then got followed by a combative press conference with General Manager David Stearns. Whether the timing was overdue or not, the Mendoza era is done, and the final verdict is going to be complicated.
He leaves with a 207-200 record, which places him ninth in Mets history in wins. His .509 winning percentage ranks seventh. Mendoza is also part of a short list of Mets managers who pushed the team to Game 6 of the NLCS or beyond, joining Gil Hodges, Yogi Berra, Davey Johnson, Bobby Valentine, Willie Randolph, and Terry Collins.
That résumé sounds sturdier than it probably feels to Mets fans, though. Raw totals can flatter or distort, and Mendoza’s case is a perfect example.
Berra and Collins both won the NL East and the pennant, and nobody around the team is choosing Mendoza over either one just because the numbers look a little cleaner. His best run will be remembered as lightning in a bottle, and the expanded playoff format had plenty to do with it.
The 2024 Mets got into the postseason by sneaking through a 12-team format that began in 2022, something several previous managers never had at their disposal. That matters when you’re comparing eras.
It also opens the door to wondering how different things might look for Randolph if that setup had existed during his tenure. Randolph’s Mets were undone by the collapses of 2007 and 2008, and his own postseason high point with the 2006 club ended in a flameout that still hangs over his legacy.
The echoes between Randolph and Mendoza are hard to miss.
Mendoza also managed in an environment that was friendlier on paper than what some other Mets skippers had to work with. Dallas Green, for instance, handled a similar number of games, 512, but his best players by WAR in his two full seasons were Jeff Kent at 3.2 and Brent Saberhagen at 5.7.
Kent was still early in his career then, years away from becoming a perennial All-Star and a regular fixture in MVP chatter. Saberhagen was already past his peak and had his two Cy Young awards behind him.
Mendoza, by contrast, had prime years from Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto. Lindor and Soto are on pace for the Hall of Fame, while Alonso could build a case if the power keeps coming deep into his 30s.
Jerry Manuel is the other obvious comparison on length alone. He managed 417 games after replacing Randolph, the closest any former Mets manager came to matching Mendoza’s tenure. But Manuel was dealing with older, banged-up teams, never got to the playoffs, and didn’t leave behind the same kind of signature stretch that Mendoza did.
Mendoza was hired to replace Buck Showalter before the 2024 season and started by pledging allegiance to Gary, Keith, and Ron. Then the team spent the first 55 games looking flat.
After that, everything flipped. The Mets caught fire, made a deep playoff run, and Mendoza finished third in NL Manager of the Year voting.
He also beat the eventual winner, Pat Murphy, and the Milwaukee Brewers in the wild card series.
One of the biggest reasons for that turnaround came when Mendoza moved Lindor into the leadoff spot in late May of 2024. It was a clean, decisive move that helped the lineup take off down the stretch. After the change, Lindor posted a .922 OPS with 24 home runs, and it stands out as one of Mendoza’s best calls.
The 2025 season began with more of the same winning. In fact, under Mendoza, the Mets were the winningest team in baseball between June 1, 2024 and June 1, 2025. But injuries piled up, the season went sideways, and the Mets missed the playoffs after an embarrassing loss to the Marlins in Game 162.
Pitching became a major flashpoint. The Mets used an MLB-record 46 pitchers in 2025, and former Mets reliever Adam Ottavino blasted both Mendoza and the team’s handling of the staff. Ottavino, who had been a key bullpen piece in the 2024 playoff run, didn’t hold back.
“This is embarrassing, this is actually pathetic, like pathetic. I would’ve never let this happen if I were on the team last year,” Ottavino said regarding the steady stream of pitching injuries.
“At least half of these guys wouldn’t have blown out. I would have protected these dudes myself; I would have had to jump in front of them myself.
Unfortunately, there was nobody willing to stand up and talk to Carlos (in 2025).”
By 2026, the whole thing had unraveled. The roster had been revamped, but the results were worse in nearly every direction. Injuries to Lindor, Soto, Clay Holmes, and other expected contributors, along with the lineup’s questionable approach and the broader underperformance of an expensive roster, made Mendoza’s firing feel inevitable.
Still, not everyone saw him as the problem. Lindor, speaking after the dismissal, took the blame on himself and his teammates.
“We failed Mendy,” he said after the firing. “I failed Mendy.
I didn’t play to my capability to help him win as many games as we could. And yeah, this one’s on us as well.”
That’s the tension with Mendoza’s place in Mets history. The ending was quiet, even bleak.
But the 2024 run still matters, and it will always be the thing that keeps his name in the conversation. If the top tier belongs to Hodges and Johnson, the next group includes Berra, Valentine, and Collins.
Mendoza’s mix of postseason success and regular-season totals probably puts him in a third tier with Randolph. Time may sand down the bad memories and brighten the good ones.
For now, that means one thing: we’ll always have 2024, even if that’s about it.
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