2025 Report Card: Carlos Mendoza, Manager

Carlos Mendoza

Age: 45

2025 record: 83-79

Overall record: 172-152

2025 salary: $1.5 million

Grade: C+

2025 Review

The Mets were 45-24 on June 12, and at that point in the year, Carlos Mendoza would have likely earned an A grade considering New York had the best record in baseball.

There are things a manager can control and things he cannot, and on that same day (June 12), Kodai Senga strained his right hamstring covering first base while attempting to catch a high throw from Pete Alonso. Senga missed a month before coming back, but wasn’t the same pitcher. In fact, his last win of the season was on June 12.

Aside from Senga, the following starters missed significant chunks of time: Sean Manaea, Tylor Megill, Frankie Montas and Griffin Canning. All of that was out of Mendoza’s control.

But he does control the moves he makes during a game. Three of Mendoza’s decisions stood out to me:

• June 13: The day after the Senga injury was the start of a seven-game losing streak. Clay Holmes pitched five innings of one-run ball and had thrown 79 pitches. The Mets led Tampa Bay 5-1. Mendoza brought in Paul Blackburn to start the sixth, and he gave up four singles while recorded just one out. He then summoned Max Kranick to escape a two-on, one-out jam with the Mets leading 5-3. Kranick, who hadn’t pitched in 11 days, gave up a single and a home run. It was a six-run sixth inning for the Rays, who won 7-5.
• July 18: It was the day after the All-Star break, meaning the whole bullpen was rested. Manaea pitched four innings of one-run ball and had thrown 69 pitches. The Mets led Cincinnati 2-1. Alex Carrillo, a 28-year-old rookie who began 2025 in the Venezuelan Winter League, started the fifth. He hit a batter and gave up a two-run homer to Matt McLain, but got the ball again to start the sixth. (To reiterate, all relievers had been off for four days.) Austin Hays led off the sixth with a home run. Spencer Steer walked, and – after a wild pitch – Tyler Stephenson homered. Jose Trevino walked, and Mendoza then mercifully took the ball from Carrillo. The Mets lost 8-4. A defeat to the Reds would prove costly when the teams ended the season tied at 83-79.
• September 20: Edwin Díaz retired the Nationals on seven pitches in the 10th inning. Tyler Rogers got the ball for the 11th and gave up a two-run, inside-the-park home run. The Mets lost 5-3.

The expectations for Mendoza and the Mets were high coming into the season. He did not meet them.

2026 Preview

President of baseball operations David Stearns said Mendoza will be back, meaning he’ll be entering the last year of a three-year deal he signed upon being hired in November 2023. There is also a club option for 2027.

Like players, managers can have good and bad years, too. (To pull one example, Buck Showalter, Mendoza’s predecessor, won 101 games in 2022, then he won 75 in 2023.) Mendoza won 89 games as a rookie manager and brought the Mets within two wins of the World Series when their preseason over/under win total was 83.5. He was third in NL Manger of the Year voting. This season, though, the Mets won 83 when the over/under was 90.5.

The pressure will be on Mendoza right away to put the collapse of 2025 behind the club. A slow start, however, could put him on the hot seat.

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