The Mets were 34-47 and last in the NL East when they fired manager Carlos Mendoza on Friday, 15 games behind first-place Atlanta and 9.5 games back of St. Louis for the final wild-card spot. A six-game losing streak was active.
The last straw looked like the Cubs series. Chicago swept four games, outscoring New York 51-24 while the Mets committed 10 errors. Stearns, the president of baseball operations, said the club had stood by Mendoza because it believed he could turn things around.
“We haven’t, and in some cases, it’s gotten worse,” Stearns said. “When that happens, at some point, you’ve got to make a change. So there’s not one moment or one thing, or one observation. But it was time, and so we did this.”
Stearns also said the blame did not fall squarely on Mendoza, and the players agreed. “This is not on him. This is more on us,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said.
The Mirror’s case against the timing
The Mirror argued the move came too late. New York lost 12 straight in April, the same month the Red Sox and Phillies replaced their managers. Philadelphia is 35-17 since it dismissed Rob Thomson. The Mirror also said the better moment came right after 2025, when a team with the best record in baseball in June faded down the stretch, missed the playoffs and broke up a core of fan favorites. Stearns kept Mendoza then and put the blame on the assistant coaches, nearly all of whom were fired.
The numbers over a longer stretch are poor. In the last 137 games, dating to July 28, 2025, the Mets are 55-82, the third-worst record in MLB. Only the Rockies (47-90) and Angels (54-83) are worse.
Injuries and the roster
Mendoza had real excuses. Lindor and Juan Soto both missed long stretches. Luis Robert Jr. and Jorge Polanco, two of Stearns’ offseason pickups, have combined for 159 plate appearances since arriving in Queens. Bo Bichette, Freddy Peralta and Marcus Semien have struggled to settle in.
Still, the Mirror wrote, Mendoza’s trouble rallying the group and holding players accountable showed up well before this season. In its view, Stearns’ reluctance to move on from the manager he picked, along with a divisive approach to building the roster, is what left the Mets where they are.
