Memories of Carlos Mendoza

[Cowtipper]

Mendoza often seemed like he was Men-dozing off in the dugout, but now he is gone. Share your memories of this less than illustrious Mets manager here. 

He did finish with a winning record overall, but he managed during an era when fans wanted a little more than just a "winning record."

[MFS62]

I remember screaming in frustration over his lineup and in-game moves. I can't remember a game going by when I didn't think "Why the F did he do that?"

Later

[The Hot Corner]

I imagine he was popular with the players, but he never seemed to be much of a motivator.  Always had a pretty quick hook of starting pitchers.  

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Hardly ever got ejected.

Wearing no. 64 didn't do him any favors. Green wearing no. 70!

Wouldn't be surprised to see him get a second chance somewhere.m, like the Nats or White Sox maybe.

Despite what you might read above he was a fine Xs and Os manager. He just didn't know how to right the ship when it wobbled.

[Cowtipper]

The one time I was impressed by Mendoza was when he went out to pull a pitcher in a good game, but I think the pitcher shooed him away and he let the pitcher stay in. I wanna say it was during one of the complete game shutouts by either Peterson or Severino. 

Through June 2025, at least, I had no complaints about him. I thought he was solid. By the end of 2025, I had flipped. He made some of the most asinine pitching moves involving relievers and would pull starters too quickly, just because they got to 100 pitches. This was my Mets memory on UMDB from June 1, 2025:

"I have no complaints about Mendoza yet. When he first came aboard, I thought "oh great, another dumb experiment," but he's proven to be a very effective skipper. He led the team to the postseason in his first year with the club and is 125-95 (.568 W%) as of this writing. Here's hoping to many more successful seasons!"

but by September 29, it was this:

"I now have complaints about Mendoza and wish to retract my previous glowing appraisal of him, based largely on his questionably managing over the last half of the 2025 season and punctuated by him going with a bullpen game in the last game of the year, the most important game of the season, the game that would decide whether the Mets went to the playoffs or not.

Also idiotic was him pitching Ryne Stanek early in that game, Stanek who had an ERA over 6 since early June and an ERA of 7.50 since August 1. Stanek, of course, gave up the majority of the runs, because bad pitchers give up a lot of runs. Not sure if Mendoza was aware of that arcane knowledge when he made the decision to use him."

[whippoorwill]

I was surprised to find he has blue eyes. 

[Centerfield]

Pulled Clay Holmes early in that June 13 game. And maybe that was predetermined as Clay complained of some discomfort in his prior start, but I don’t see why you pull a starter that is cruising. And then he turned to Paul Blackburn. Just mind boggling. 
 

That being said, I don’t think he was terrible with the in game decisions. What made him stand out was the inability to right the ship when things were going bad. Few got so little out of so much the way Mendy did. 
 

I liked him though. Seemed a real good dude. Falls into the good guy, bad manager pool. Like Terry Collins and Jerry Manuel. 
 

I couldn’t be happier he’s no longer the manager. 

[The Hot Corner]

By all accounts, Mendoza is a very good and decent man, but I often did not agree with many of his in game decisions.  Even in 2024, I felt he had too quick of a hook with starting pitchers (seemingly based on pitch count) and as a result overworked the bullpen which eventually led to poor performance.

[Radar]

They fired the wrong guy. Mendoza was third down from Genius Boy and the owner who I've also come to seriously question. But Mandy took the sword for the clown show above him. Don't ever challenge your fans again, Cohen , about not showing up.

[Cowtipper]

Stearns won't be fired, he'll be optioned to Triple-A Syracuse.