Mets fire Carlos Mendoza after 34-47 start, name Andy Green interim manager

The Mets fired Carlos Mendoza on Friday and named Andy Green interim manager after a 34-47 start left the club in last place in the NL East. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns made the announcement and said the team would not exercise Mendoza’s 2027 club option. Green, a former Padres manager who had been working in the organization in player development, will guide the rest of the 2026 season.

The change came after New York entered the move on a six-game losing streak, with a sweep by the Cubs at Citi Field adding to a year that already included a 12-game skid, the franchise’s longest since 2002. The Mets were 15 games behind NL East-leading Atlanta and 9 1/2 games out of the National League’s final wild-card spot, leaving a payroll reported at roughly $370 million with no obvious return on the investment.

That is the real pressure point behind the firing: whether Mendoza was the main problem or the most visible place for ownership expectations to land. Stearns had publicly backed him only weeks earlier, saying on May 1 that the Mets were expected to keep Mendoza despite an 11-21 start and the 12-game slump. Mendoza had been hired before the 2024 season and was retained for 2026 after Stearns said on Sept. 29, 2025 that he would return.

The front office is now trying to change the tone without changing the roster or the money already committed to it. Stearns said Mendoza had “led the organization with passion and grace and is beloved by everyone who works with him on a daily basis,” but the results never matched the spending or the expectations attached to a club built to contend. Injuries and underperformance had overwhelmed the season by late June, and Green inherited a team that had already spent months running out of excuses.