Mets' Carlos Mendoza getting tested right away in first managerial stint
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza raises his cap after the 2-1 win against the Detroit Tigers in Game 2 of an MLB doubleheader baseball game at Citi Field on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
We all know that line in the movie, "Moneyball" — A’s general manager Billy Beane trying to convince Scott Hatteberg, a career catcher, to move to first base.
“It’s not that hard, Scott,” Brad Pitt’s Beane drawls. “Tell 'em, Wash.”
Ron Washington: “It’s incredibly hard.”
That’s kind of the way it is with this game.
Things go slow and they can look, and feel, deceptively simple: See the ball, hit the ball. Catch. Throw. Advance the runners. Have enough pitchers in your bullpen to feasibly finish a game (or two). If you win just a little more than half the time, you’ve got a decent shot at the playoffs, and if you get a hit in 30% of your at bats, you’re pretty dang good at what you do.
Of course, it’s nowhere near that easy, and even despite Thursday’s come-from-behind win in Game 2 of their doubleheader against the Tigers — their first of the season, after falling to 0-5 with a loss in the matinee — the Mets these days are making it look even harder than that.
And the person who’s probably feeling it the most is their rookie manager, Carlos Mendoza.
Mendoza was a beloved bench coach for the Yankees — a career gamer who worked his way up the ranks, earning the respect of players and executives alike. He’s waited a long time for this shot — 15 years since he began his coaching career with the Staten Island Yankees — and though he was something of a surprise pick, it made sense. He understands what it means to coach in New York, and he’d be able to evolve around new president of baseball operations David Stearns.
All of which brings to mind what former Mets manager Buck Showalter used to say over and over (and over) again: “Men make plans, and the baseball gods laugh.”
In this case, it’s not a funny ‘ha-ha’ laugh.
Things could not have started off worse for Mendoza, who began the first five games of the season with more suspensions (one) and rain postponements (three) than wins (zero). In Game 1 of Thursday's doubleheader, he made decisions that, if not blatantly wrong in the moment, were at least curious. He pulled Adrian Houser after 67 pitches. And even though Houser said the move made sense because it was his first start of the season and he was losing his feel, it ended up biting the Mets, who needed eight pitchers just to lose, 6-3, in 11 innings. That left them with just two unused bullpen arms for Game 2: Yohan Ramirez and Reed Garrett. With the scored tied and no outs in the 10th, he took the bat out of Brett Baty’s hands — having Baty attempt to bunt over the ghost runner twice before he struck out swinging.
These things are all justifiable if they work, but to a disgruntled fanbase, they look like malpractice when they don’t. They also gave the sense that Mendoza, much like his hitters, was pressing, and there has to at least be some hope that now that the first win is out of the way, things will feel a little less desperate.
After all, it’s too early to give up. Willie Randolph lost the first five games he managed in 2005 and ended up winning the next six; the Mets just barely missed the playoffs that year. Baseball seasons are long, winding and strange, and giving up on Mendoza this early is reactionary and detrimental to an organization that for too long has been marked by managerial instability.
Mendoza isn’t the sole reason the Mets are 1-5. It’s not his fault that Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil have temporarily forgotten how to hit. It’s not his fault that Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill are on the injured list, or the “pitching depth” everyone was talking about is looking really, really shallow these days.
But none of that matters when you’re the manager, especially in this city. True or not, the losses are your fault, and the wins are everyone else’s accomplishment.
“It’s not the way I anticipated things going,” Mendoza said before the day’s twin bill. “We’ve been through a lot, especially in the first series with all the events that happened — that unfortunately happened. You don’t want to go through it. I get it but it’s one of those where you’ve just got to keep going. You’ve got to prepare, you’ve got to keep relying on your guys, coaches and things like that and, you know, we’ll get through it.”
That’s going to be the name of the game if Mendoza is going to survive this. He’ll have to stay cool as the walls start closing in, not panic as he grasps for elusive wins, and find his voice amid a sea of detractors. He’ll have to do it while navigating an underperforming lineup that nonetheless has to go to Atlanta for a four-game set next week. And, thanks to the slew of rainouts and this doubleheader, it’ll have to happen over the course of 15 games in 14 days.
It's a waterlogged baptism by fire, but if he can survive this — and it’s a big if — it will be a good test of his mettle.
It’s a lot, and Mets fans are understandably skeptical, but that’s what it means to manage in New York.
It’s incredibly hard. (Tell ‘em Wash.)
Well, maybe not Wash — the Ron Washington-managed Angels are currently 4-2.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.