Mets manager Carlos Mendoza enters NLCS Game 6 hoping to join Yankees in World Series
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza watches during batting practice before Game 6 of the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday in Los Angeles. Credit: AP/Julio Cortez
LOS ANGELES
On the eve of NLCS Game 6, with the Mets still fighting for their playoff lives, Carlos Mendoza observed his other team, roughly 2,000 miles away, celebrate what he so desperately wants for his new franchise: a World Series berth.
That other team, of course, is the Yankees, the organization Mendoza spent his formative years with, 14 seasons climbing the ladder, preparing for this dream shot with the Mets. Everyone knows the back story by now, so I asked Mendoza about those emotions Sunday afternoon and if he envisioned that same scene for this club, driving it home just how close they are to the same euphoria.
“You’re watching it on TV, and it’s like, man, we still have a chance,” Mendoza said roughly three hours before the first pitch of Game 6. “We know we’ve got to win today because there’s no tomorrow for us. But watching them celebrate, it makes you think, because we still have an opportunity.”
When Mendoza spoke those words, the prospect of a Subway Series remained a possibility, though a long shot. The Mets were down 3-2 in the NLCS, and teams in that position historically had a success rate of 29.2% for the LCS (14-33). Overall, for any best-of-seven (including the World Series), it edges up to 30.7% (79-114).
But New York City already was halfway there after the Yankees’ five-game ALCS win over the Guardians, a World Series spot clinched by Juan Soto’s dramatic three-run homer in the 10th inning Saturday night.
Soto wasn’t wearing pinstripes when Mendoza was the bench coach over there. The Yankees made that trade with the Padres a month after the Mets introduced him as manager.
But Mendoza has strong relationships with most of his former Bronx colleagues, many of whom he’s known for more than a decade, including the core players. Mendoza said he texted with a bunch of them Saturday night but wouldn’t divulge any specific names other than manager Aaron Boone, whom he had worked alongside since 2018.
“Five or six guys that are in the starting lineup,” Mendoza said. “They’ve been reaching out to us, to me, when we clinched, when we beat the Brewers, when we beat the Phillies. I continue to get texts from players and front-office personnel and a lot of people there.”
Going by Mendoza’s head count, it’s easy to figure out the texting players through process of elimination. Soto, Alex Verdugo and Jazz Chisholm Jr. didn’t show up in the Bronx until after his departure, so he’s no doubt close to the rest, having worked with a few of them since the minors, too.
Publicly, Mendoza expressed his congratulations for Boone, general manager Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner. Since the Yankees hadn’t been to a World Series since 2009 — the year of their last title — Mendoza was acutely aware of the frustration that’s been boiling over in the Bronx for a while now.
“It’s not easy to get to the World Series, and they’ve been through a lot,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that I have a lot of respect for, and hopefully I get to see them. We’ve got to take care of business here.”
Mendoza flipped allegiances when he made the move to Flushing, but you can’t just switch off the friendships left behind. What he has gained is more of an appreciation of what it takes to get a team this deep into October. Before the Yankees punched their ticket to the Fall Classic on Saturday, Mendoza had the Mets dead even with his former team, though in a more precarious position, just one loss from winter vacation.
Not bad for a rookie manager, especially a newbie who had to overcome an 0-5 start and being 11 games under .500 in early June and already had won two elimination games, one during the Wild Card Series in Milwaukee and again Friday in this NLCS.
Mendoza’s player-development background is one of his greatest strengths, but he also was known as a straight shooter during his time with the Yankees, and that’s part of what’s made him so successful in his first Mets season.
Mendoza, like Boone, has been in charge of a $300-million-plus roster, though a significant chunk of that is dead money (Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, etc.) shipped elsewhere before his arrival. When the two faced off during the regular season, Mendoza swept his Bronx buddy, 4-0, in the Subway Series, and on that stage, he knew how painful that must have been for Boone during one of the season’s darkest periods for the Yankees.
It’s not as if Mendoza is managing in a different city now, either. Just another borough, only a dozen miles across the RFK Bridge, so he’s been acutely aware of the anti-Boone drumbeat that’s out there. Consider that chorus quieted for now.
“I’m proud of him,” Mendoza said. “Since Year One, when he took over in 2018 and they won 100 games and they’re still calling for his head, you know? Not an easy gig, just like every one of ‘em. But I know how hard they had to work to get to this point . . . I learned a lot from him. It means a lot.”
Heading into Game 6, with Mendoza still focused on the Mets’ survival, he wanted nothing more than to join Boone in the World Series rather than watch him.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.