Carlos Mendoza shouldn’t be the Mets’ scapegoat

The New York Mets are slipping into a full-blown midseason crisis, and the question on many minds is whether Carlos Mendoza will be the one left holding the bag. With an off-day offering the rare opportunity to swap managers without the glare of an immediate game, the ownership’s long-stated aversion to impulsive firings meets the reality of a team that looks disconnected and injury-ravaged.

Steve Cohen has publicly pushed back against emotional, headline-driven personnel moves in the past, preferring stability and the long view. Yet the current standings — with the Mets mired near the bottom of the NL East and a recent sweep in Cincinnati — have amplified calls for change. That tension sets up a decision point that could reshape the season’s narrative almost overnight.

What the scoreboard and recent form actually show

The Mets sit well below expectations in the division and are in a slump that has intensified scrutiny of the coaching staff and front office. Recent results have been bleak:

• Current record: Last place in the NL East at 22-33.
• Recent skid: Swept by Cincinnati and riding a six-game losing streak; the club is 2-7 in its last nine contests.
• Home and away trends: Uneven pitching, inconsistent offense, and an injury list that keeps growing.

That patch of losses puts the Mets in a hole they’ll have to climb out of quickly to stay relevant in the Wild Card race — and it has made the manager’s job spotlighted in a way Mendoza did not face at the start of the year.

Owner temperament versus public pressure: Cohen’s anti-impulse stance

Steve Cohen has repeatedly warned against knee-jerk dismissals as a way to “win the headline” and attract criticism for making short-term moves. He held to that principle after the Buck Showalter era, allowing Showalter to finish out a 75-87 season rather than pulling the plug midyear. That precedent has insulated managers in the past.

Still, baseball ownerships across the league have shown they will make abrupt managerial changes when they believe optics or momentum require it. Recent examples include teams that parted ways with managers shortly after wins, underlining that off-field timing can be opportunistic.

Past high-profile, offbeat firings

• Other MLB clubs have fired managers immediately following victories, illustrating that a win doesn’t always protect a skipper from dismissal.
• New York baseball history contains its own notorious late-night firing episodes, which remind fans that timing can be as dramatic as the decision itself.

How roster construction and injuries complicate the “fire the manager” narrative

Blaming a manager alone obscures the larger problems that have handicapped the roster. The club’s top executives, most notably president of baseball operations David Stearns, made sweeping changes in the offseason and during spring, trading established core players and altering the team’s makeup. Those moves have produced mixed results that play into the on-field struggles.

• Departed core: Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil were moved in transactions that reshaped the lineup. Those three have combined for power and durability with their new clubs — totaling 18 home runs and missing only a handful of games among them.
• Replacement issues: The Mets’ current offense has produced 48 homers as a team, but the lineup has been undercut by the long-term absence of several key contributors.
• Injury toll:

  • Eight position players have landed on the injured list, including Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr., both of whom were expected to help offset the losses of Alonso and Nimmo.
  • Pitching depth has been tested with the loss of the staff’s ace for the foreseeable future.

• Underperforming replacements: Marcus Semien, inserted to fill second base duties, is struggling at the plate with a .575 OPS — a sharp decline from his recent numbers and well below his career norms.

That combination of frontline departures, hit-or-miss replacements and injuries makes it difficult to assign singular blame to the manager for a club that has been structurally altered beyond Mendoza’s control.

Why the timing of a managerial change matters — optics, logistics and a Hall of Fame weekend

An off-day offers a practical moment for an ownership change if Cohen chooses to act: it avoids the odd spectacle of a press conference hours before a game and gives the organization a breathing space to install an interim voice. But the calendar also complicates things.

• The team is scheduled to honor franchise figures this coming weekend with Hall of Fame inductions, including Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine. A managerial switch immediately before or during those ceremonies would raise awkward questions about who sits on the field and how the organization frames its direction.
• Bobby Valentine’s personality and history with the club ensure his comments at a pre-induction event would draw immediate comparisons between past dismissals and any modern decision to remove Mendoza.
• Making a high-profile change in the middle of this spotlight could either reset the narrative or simply create a new, short-lived headline — precisely what Cohen said he wanted to avoid.

Mathematics of a comeback: can the Mets realistically chase a Wild Card?

The numbers make the uphill climb plain. The club trails the last Wild Card slot by eight games, and projections place the current Wild Card pace near a 90-win season. To reach 90 wins, New York would need to post something like a 68-39 record from this point forward — a performance rate that extrapolates to more than 100 wins over a full season.

1. Current gap to Wild Card: eight games behind the team occupying the final spot.
2. Required win pace for 90 wins: roughly 68-39 for the remainder of the schedule.
3. Practical obstacles: missing Opening Day regulars and an injured staff ace make that trajectory extremely difficult.

Realistic expectations now require stellar health and sudden offensive and pitching reversals — variables that aren’t guaranteed given the current roster construction and injury list.

Who bears responsibility if the season collapses?

There are multiple potential targets for fan frustration: the manager, the president of baseball operations who reconfigured the roster, and the owner who signs off on the strategy. Public sentiment tends to focus on the manager because he is visible and accountable in the dugout, but structural decisions made months earlier have an outsized impact on results.

• Firing Mendoza would mirror the approach of past ownership groups that made the manager the scapegoat for deeper organizational problems.
• Keeping him in place risks ongoing criticism and a continuing narrative of wasted potential.
• The alternative — removing the architect of the roster — would be a much more dramatic and rare admission of mistake at the executive level.

The coming days — an off-day window, a potential roster return timeline, and a weekend of franchise ceremonies — will shape not only how the Mets address underperformance but how the organization explains its choices to a skeptical fan base.

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John Davis

John Davis is a sports journalist focused on the NBA, NFL, and major global championships. With seven years of live coverage, he breaks down performances and key strategies. His expertise gives you a clear view of every game and its impact.