The New York Mets looked across the city to fill their managerial opening.
According to news report from the New York Post and other news outlets, the Mets will hire Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza as their new manager. Mendoza will be the fifth manager the Mets have named since 2017.
After the team parted ways with Buck Showalter following the end of his second season with the Mets, new president of baseball operations David Stearns elected to go with a first-time manager in the 43-year-old Mendoza.
The native of Venezuela has coached in the Yankees organization since 2009, spending the last four seasons as the team’s bench coach under manager Aaron Boone.
‘I view the managerial position as one of true partnership, someone who is working side by side with me and the rest of our baseball ops group,’ Stearns said during his introductory press conference on Oct. 2. ‘The manager has so many responsibilities these days, it is a big job, but first and foremost is the ability to manage people, manage personalities and create and facilitate organizational culture where people enjoy coming to work and work hard.’
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Mendoza, who played across the infield, broke into the Giants minor-league system in 1997 at 17 years old. He spent his final four seasons in the Yankees’ system, reaching as high as Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2009 before making the leap to coaching.
Mendoza managed the Gulf Coast Yankees in 2011 and the Class A Charleston River Dogs in 2012 and began serving as the Yankees’ infield coach in 2017.
The Mets were also linked to Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who served under Stearns in Milwaukee, and former Padres manager Andy Green, who had served as the Cubs bench coach. Counsell decided that he would leave to manage the Cubs on Monday.
The Mets have been searching for a new manager since it was announced that Showalter would not be returning as the team’s leader prior to the final game of the 2023 season on Oct. 1.
Mets owner Steve Cohen gave Stearns the ability to name his manager when he took the helm as the team’s first president of baseball operations at the end of the regular season.
‘We’re not going to rush this process,’ Stearns said when he was introduced on Oct. 2. ‘If there are candidates that emerged quickly that are that are really strong candidates and the right fit, that’s great. And if we have to wait a little longer, I’m fine with that too.’
Mendoza will enter the role with high expectations. Showalter was let go despite being named National League Manager of the Year in 2022, racking up a 176-148 record and snapping a five-year postseason drought.
Check back for more news on the Mets’ hiring of Carlos Mendoza.
