What’s Next After Mets Fire Carlos Mendoza At Halfway Point Of Season

NEW YORK – This was inevitable. It just happened several months too late. On Friday morning, the Mets fired manager Carlos Mendoza and replaced him with interim manager Andy Green. The Mets are 34-47, last place in the NL East, 15 games behind first place, and 9 1/2 games behind a wild card spot with seven teams in front of them. Green, the Mets’ current farm director and former Padres skipper, will serve as the manager through the end of this season. David Stearns, the Mets president of baseball operations, will conduct a full managerial search in the offseason. Mendoza, who led the Mets in their special run to the NLCS in 2024, became a sitting duck at the end of 2025, when the Mets collapsed out of contention and missed the playoffs while flashing one of the highest payrolls in the sport. Mendoza’s job security became most vulnerable over this past offseason, when Stearns turned over his entire coaching staff, left Mendoza in his role, and didn’t pick up his team option for the 2027 season. Mendoza’s seat was hottest when the Mets slogged through a 12-game losing streak in mid-April and Stearns continued to say he was confident in the manager. Mendoza’s fate was sealed this week after the Mets lost six in a row in another ugly stretch of baseball that included a six-error game at home against the Cubs on Wednesday. Even though Mendoza’s removal from managerial duties after being the Mets’ dugout leader for two and a half seasons was a long time coming, the news came as a shock to the Mets clubhouse on Friday when they held a team meeting. “It hurts. … We failed Mendy. I failed Mendy,” Lindor said. “I have talked to [Mendoza], and he apologized about not helping us win as much. But at the end of the day, this is not on him. It’s more on us, the players, that we didn’t perform to our capabilities.” Mendoza’s managerial tenure began with an 89-73 record (.549 winning percentage) through 2024, followed by a 117-126 record (.481 winning percentage) from 2025-26. Let’s dive into what’s next for the Mets, Stearns, Green, Steve Cohen and company. What’s Next For David Stearns? Whether Mets fans like it or not, Stearns is not going anywhere anytime soon. He’s at the halfway point of his five-year contract as Mets president of baseball operations, and team owner Steve Cohen struck out with multiple other executives and waited a long time to land his white whale. Stearns confirmed on Friday that he still has Cohen’s support to continue to lead the front office. That being said, Mendoza was the fall guy. Everyone in baseball knows the failure of this Mets season falls squarely on Stearns’ shoulders. Hours after firing Mendoza, Stearns attempted to be accountable for his poor roster construction in an 18-minute press conference in a packed room of reporters on Friday afternoon at Citi Field. “Despite all of our efforts, Mendy’s included, we haven’t been able to get going this year,” Stearns said. “And I take responsibility for that. Ultimately, everything that occurs in baseball operations, including our major-league record, is my responsibility. I also have a responsibility to push us forward, to look for solutions, and to make difficult decisions and change when I think it’s needed.” At the very least, Stearns has to prove he can build a successful starting rotation, as that’s been a glaring weakness for the team for the past two consecutive seasons. But beyond that, he also has to prove to Cohen that he’s capable of leading a front office in a big market with unlimited resources at his fingertips. Stearns was successful in Milwaukee with miniscule payrolls that will never come close to what he’s working with in New York. And his philosophy — unemotionally parting ways with popular veteran players and axing the coaching staff, replacing those fan favorites with injured or aging players, and continuing to bet the house on unproven players to take the next step forward — has not worked. Before the offseason rolls around, Stearns’ next big test will be how he handles the upcoming trade deadline. For now, he is continuing to say the Mets have not given up on this season, though it’s hard to find anyone who actually believes that. “I understand we have an uphill battle ahead of us this year, but we’re not turning the page,” Stearns said. “We all remain very focused on doing everything we can to win as many games this year while recognizing where we are in the standings.” The Mets have a significant trade chip in right-hander Freddy Peralta, and it’s a thin market for starting pitchers at this deadline. Stearns and company should be able to swing a solid return for Peralta, and potentially for other players like left-hander A.J. Minter and, depending on how full-fledged of a sell-off it is, infielder Mark Vientos and catcher Francisco Alvarez. Outside an incredible turnaround from the team between now and Aug. 3, expect the Mets to be sellers. All eyes will be on Stearns to see what he does next to help revamp the Mets into contenders for 2027. What’s Next For Andy Green And The Mets? Andy Green did not want this job. After spending four seasons (2016-19) managing the Padres — and failing to make the postseason in all four of those years with an overall record of 274-366 in San Diego – Green didn’t want to manage again. He turned down other managerial opportunities, in part to spend more time with his family, especially with his three daughters, and enjoy the freedom of his personal life without having to spend 162 games in a dugout. “David was aware of all those things and aware that this wasn’t something I was running to,” Green said on Friday. “This felt like a responsibility more than an opportunity once it was made known to me that there was nothing that was going to change the [decision to fire Mendoza]. Once I learned that, I genuinely believe that, given my life experience, I was in the best position to help over the next three months and see what we can get done as a group.” Stearns hired Green as Mets senior vice president of baseball development in 2023. Green will return to his duties as the team’s farm director after managing the Mets this season. What difference will he make in the span of a few short months? “I think sometimes a new voice, a new perspective, a new view helps,” Stearns said. “And sometimes it’s really difficult to explain why or how, but at this point it was time to try. I think Andy, just by virtue of his experiences, both before he got here and during his time with the Mets, is going to bring something a little bit different. And I think for us it was time to try something a little different.” Green can’t help but continue to pay attention to the player development side of things in the minor leagues. But, for now, he will turn the majority of his time, attention and energy to helping the Mets win games. After speaking with reporters for 25 minutes on Friday, it seemed like the best way Green would help that goal was through his upbeat energy and limiting distractions for the players. Green wants the Mets to play free and reintroduce their love and joy for the game. Like Stearns, Green believes the roster is too talented to continue sliding in the standings for much longer. He understands the team is being doubted, and that it’s the players who have the pen in their hands to rewrite the story. The last hope for the Mets in the remainder of this lost season is to quickly get their injured players back healthy. This year’s offensive group of Juan Soto, Lindor, Bo Bichette, Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. have only played a handful of games together — and none since April 2. It’s been impossible to know what that group is capable of doing together after prolonged injuries to Polanco and Robert have sidelined any momentum. That being said, other players whom Stearns was counting on to be a part of the lineup’s success have not panned out. Infielders Brett Baty and Vientos have been disappointments at the plate, recording a combined OPS+ of 74 through the first half of the season. Both players are in their fifth year in the majors and Stearns expected them to take steps forward this season. Marcus Semien, now injured with a hip flexor strain, was just as disappointing, posting a 71 OPS+ before he hit the injured list. Reinforcements from homegrown rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing have at least given fans reasons to continue tuning into games. While their performance has been weak, the Mets clubhouse was steadfast in believing Mendoza took the fall for their shoddy results. “Mendy was good to me,” Bichette said. “I guess, sometimes the manager has to take the fall for the team underperforming.” Who Could Be Next As Mets Manager? It shouldn’t come as a surprise that there are already plenty of names floating around to take over as Mets manager next season. The Mets have yet to hire a manager who has finished his third season since Terry Collins, and his third season was all the way back in 2013. Whoever takes the job next will be the organization’s fifth full-time manager since Collins retired after the 2017 season. The only person we know for sure who won’t be on the long list of names interviewing for the role is Green. The first person to publicly throw his hat in the ring was Albert Pujols, who announced his desire to manage the Mets while appearing on MLB Network on Friday, hours after Mendoza was fired. Pujols has never managed at any level in MLB, but he is fresh off managing the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. “No matter where it is,” Pujols said on MLB Network, “I’m going to bring in my experience, learning from great managers in the past, and try to do the best that I can to build a great relationship with the players.” Another first-time manager who could be on the Mets’ radar is Carlos Beltran, who was hired to be the Mets skipper after the 2019 season, and fired before spring training after the team learned of his role in the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal. Beltran is currently a special assistant to the Mets in a front-office advisory role, and he has a strong relationship with Steve and Alex Cohen. Other potential names include Alex Cora, who was fired by the Red Sox earlier this season, former Cubs manager David Ross, and maybe even the Mets’ current bench coach, Kai Correa. Whoever is next, we can expect the pressure to be dialed all the way up. Cohen said earlier this year in spring training that if the Mets missed the playoffs in two consecutive seasons, it would be “not good.” Now, we’re just a few months away from finding out just how aggressively Cohen will respond to that “not good” scenario.