Best of the Mets on WFAN: Carlos Mendoza fired

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
I got the news a few minutes ago that the Mets have fired manager Carlos Mendoza. Andy Green is going to come down from the front office and be the interim manager, manager with the Padres for parts of four seasons, has been up in the front office as Senior Vice President of Player Development for the Mets. And we all know this is not all Carlos Mendoza's fault, but you're going to start to see more action. I'm sure players getting traded out of here. I don't know what the Mets will do with the front office at the end of the year, especially with a lockout on the horizon. And it would be surprising to me if Steve Cohen ended up pulling the plug on David Stearns, but it's warranted with what has gone on here. I mean, it is as bad as could possibly be there on pace to not even win 70 games. They've got a massive payroll as we talk about all the time. But it's one of those something had to happen things because the team has been so terrible. And Carlos Mendoza was a victim of that.
When the Phillies went and fired their manager back and got Don Manningly in there as the interim. You know, it ended up being a boon for them as they got themselves back into the conversation in the National League and the National League East. I don't know if it's going to do it for the Mets because of the rotation issues and all the injuries they have. But it's the first big change. What have you seen in this horrible, horrible 2026 season?

**Chris McMonigle** (1:29)
It's really unfortunate because there was some great times with Carlos Mendoza.
And then when they came out of that season and they went into last year's season, they did make some changes. There was also kind of the begrudgingly giving Pete Alonso a contract last year and then letting him walk and trading Brandon Nimmo and then of course getting rid of Jeff McNeil and then dealing with all the injuries. This is unfortunately the life of a manager and the only one that really has, I think, has made it through, I don't want to say unscathed because I think he gets criticized way too much for the success that his team has is Aaron Boone. Like, you know, he's gone through all these injuries. He's missing Stanton and Judge right now. He was missing Gary Cole last year. Think about and think about how they have stayed relevant to a large part too. I think the combination of Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone. And I know some Yankee fans hate hearing that, but from somebody who's got no skin in that game, what I see is I see consistency and I see a winning culture.
The Mets don't have that, especially when you're bringing in guys left and right as mercenaries.

**Craig Carton** (2:37)
Yeah. You know, it is, it's interesting to go back during the 2024 run when they were celebrating, I'm pretty sure was the, after the Phillies series, where they ended up beating them in the postseason and they're doing the champagne celebration. And Steve Cohen said, I want to change the negative perception of the Met fan. And I remember coming in the next day and lauding that phrase and saying, you're doing exactly that. I mean, this team is unbelievable to watch. It's a huge turnaround. I mean, what a season.
And since then, they've gone completely south. Obviously, the Knicks have changed their fan base's negative opinion. But you're right, the winning culture thing is still eluding the New York Mets. And they have gone and changed many managers, many general managers and an ownership change that everybody was screaming about. And the winning culture is still eluding them and eluding them in a big way.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:35)
Yeah. And so you got Hal Steinbrenner still owns the majority shares of the Yankees. And he's kept Brian Cashman in place, their front office, their president, their CFO, their CEO. I think they've all stayed there. They've all been there. They all understand the Yankee way, which is real.
And Aaron Boone understands that as well. And so do the players who put on that uniform, maybe with the exception of Jazz Chisholm every now and again. But the Mets, there's constant change around the team. The ownership, when he took over, we all thought that spending money and him spending money was going to lead to lots of wins. I mean, this is not building from within, at least maybe a couple of young players that are finally going to get up here and we're going to see a lot more of them, I would imagine, will give us a better perspective as to what to expect in the future. But it still comes down to spending this amount of money and getting this performance over the last two years out of this team.