The Mets have fired Carlos Mendoza.
New York moved on from its manager on Friday after a disappointing first half that left the team well outside the playoff picture. The decision was not a surprise. Mendoza had been on the hot seat for weeks, and the Mets had reportedly been talking internally about potential replacements for the last month.
Mendoza took over as manager in 2024 and led the team to the National League Championship Series that year. The 2025 season was a step back. The 2026 season has been a disaster. After investing massively in free agency over the past three winters, the Mets entered the year as the favorites in the NL East and have done nothing but underperform since opening day.
Steve Cohen has been patient. He stuck with Mendoza through a poor April and a worse May. By the time June rolled around and the Mets were still under .500, however, the situation got untenable. The clubhouse was reportedly tense. Players were not playing hard. The starting rotation, which Cohen built at enormous expense, has been mediocre.
The clubhouse issues are the biggest reason for the move. Multiple reports have suggested that Mendoza had lost the room over the past two months. When a manager loses his players, the season is essentially over no matter what the standings look like. Cohen acted before things got even uglier.
Bench coach John Gibbons will take over on an interim basis. Gibbons has managed before in Toronto and is well-respected by veteran players. He is not expected to be the long-term answer, but he gives the team a steady hand for the rest of 2026 while the front office runs a real managerial search.
The names already being floated for the permanent job include some intriguing options. Albert Pujols has been mentioned as a possible candidate given his connections to Cohen. Carlos Beltran, who has worked in the Mets front office, could also re-enter the picture. There are also a handful of bench coaches around the league who would jump at the chance to lead a team with this much spending power.
What Cohen has to figure out is whether the problem is really the manager or the roster. The Mets have $300 million in payroll committed to a team that is currently 35-45. That is not a managerial failure alone. That is also a roster construction failure. Some of the highest-paid players are simply not performing.
The trade deadline is now the next pressure point. The Mets have to decide whether to sell off pieces for the future or to keep trying with the current group. A new manager rarely fixes a structural roster problem. Cohen needs to be honest with himself about that.
From a fan perspective, this firing was necessary even if it does not fix everything. Players had stopped responding to Mendoza. The team needed a new voice. Gibbons will bring that for the next three months while the front office sorts out the future.
The Mets are still the team with the highest payroll in baseball. They are still owned by the most aggressive spender in the sport. They will not stay this bad for long. But the Carlos Mendoza experiment is officially over, and the next chapter starts now.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
