Mets manager Carlos Mendoza has a huge fan in Yankees' Aaron Judge

TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Judge recalled his early days in Tampa, back in 2014, for minor-league spring training.

At the club’s minor-league complex, located just under a mile from Steinbrenner Field, Judge, the club’s first-round pick in 2013, spent most of his time working with his fellow outfielders.

But the club’s minor-league infield coordinator and his work intrigued Judge, then 21.  So he asked one of his closest friends, infielder Tyler Wade, a fourth-round pick in 2013, about him.

And that’s when he first learned about Carlos Mendoza.

“I asked Wade, ‘What do you got on Mendy? What do you got on Mendy?’ ” a smiling Judge told Newsday on Friday afternoon after playing six innings in the Yankees' 5-3 victory over the Mets. “He was like, ‘Man, that guy’s No. 1 in my book. He’s taught me so much about the game.’ ”

Mendoza, who spent 15 years in the Yankees' organization — the previous four as Aaron Boone’s bench coach after serving as the minor-league infield coordinator from 2013-17 — returned to Steinbrenner Field on Friday as the Mets' new manager.

A walk alongside Mendoza in the bowels of the ballpark,  as he made his way from the visitor’s clubhouse to meet up with Boone for a few minutes outside the Yankees’ clubhouse, could best be described as a stop-start-stop-start affair.

Mostly stop.

There was Yankees pro scouting director Matt Daley. YES Network analyst Paul O’Neill. Other recognizable names.

But there also was a security guard here. Another security guard there. The Yankees' team chef.

And so on.

Everyone wanted to chat with Mendoza (and he with them).

The word “communicator” gets a workout when it comes to Mendoza, 44,  and it certainly did in Queens after the Mets hired him for his first managerial job.

There is, however, far more to it than that when it comes to Mendoza. He is properly fluent in all of the analytics and data science so much a part of the game. But Mendoza, who as a player got  as high as Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with the Yankees' organization in 2009 before deciding to give coaching a try,  still is an old-time baseball soul at heart, which players young and old pick up on and appreciate.

To use an oft-used phrase of Boone’s, Mendoza has plenty of “the care factor” when it comes to dealing with players. But also, according to Yankees closer Clay Holmes, there’s an “edge” that Mendoza isn’t afraid to show.

“He can be very easygoing, but you can tell when it’s like, ‘Hey, it’s go time,’” Holmes said. “He has that intense side to him, and you feel that.”

Judge said he noticed Mendoza’s impact on players under his charge a decade ago. 

“He commands a room. He expects the most out of his players,” Judge said. “I noticed that a lot, even with the infielders, working with them in the minor leagues, guys would run through a wall for him. They’d get dirty, they’d do the extra stuff for him. He just commanded a standard that you expect out of the New York Yankees every single day.”

Mendoza’s organizational skills remain legendary around the team. He was responsible for putting together the daily spring training schedule the previous seven years, a thankless task of coordination for 60 to 70 players. It was a chore he learned under Rob Thomson, the current Phillies manager. Thomson did it for much of his 28-year tenure in the organization, which ended when he didn’t get the manager’s job that went to Boone before the 2018 season.

Both Thomson and Mendoza were famous for arriving for work in spring training around 4 a.m., sometimes before that. Under both, the Yankees' schedule ran like clockwork.

This year, the schedule, now a two-man job handled by bench coach Brad Ausmus and field coordinator/catching coach Tanner Swanson, has not been as smooth an operation, causing its share of grumbling among players and even some coaches.

Indeed, Mendoza — “Mendy” to just about everyone in the sport — is missed around the Yankees. But make no mistake; putting together the daily  schedule is easy compared to the task of finding anyone with the Yankees who wasn’t thrilled to see Mendoza get the opportunity he did across town.

“It was fun having him around. I have a lot of respect for him. I learned a lot from him. We had a lot of great talks, a lot of great conversations,” Judge said. “They’re in good hands over there . . . He’s just got a great feel. He’s got a great feel for a lot of things in the game, and he’s going to make a great manager for quite a few years.''

The feeling is mutual. Upon learning of Judge's comments,  Mendoza said, “He is a special player but a better person.”

Added Judge, "We’re going to miss him. We all miss him over here, that’s for sure. It’s tough when things like that happen. You get to know [his] family, you get to know him and care for them. But I’m always rooting for him.

“Except for when we’re playing each other.”