Mets' Carlos Mendoza settling in at right time as a rookie manager
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza speaks to the media on Tuesday in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Carlos Mendoza spoke for nearly 15 minutes Tuesday in what officially served as his opening media briefing for the start of spring training. But those words offered little insight as far as handicapping his success as the newly minted 24th manager in Mets history.
The conversation that did matter took place earlier that morning, when Mendoza talked with Mark Vientos, considered to be among the first wave of prospects that will be extended every opportunity to earn a regular job on this year’s roster. A day earlier, new president of baseball ops David Stearns made the young players a point of emphasis in the team’s current “organizational cycle” and Vientos is a big part of this current crop.
And if that’s important to Stearns, you can bet it was a mandate for his first managerial hire in Flushing, which is why Mendoza was holding court Tuesday in that cramped Clover Park interview room. Just as Buck Showalter was the right guy at the right time back in December 2021, when owner Steve Cohen had only begun to flex his $18 billion fortune, collecting free agents like Picassos, the dawn of the Stearns Era is requiring a much different vibe — or at least that's how he envisions it.
It’s not about Buck’s brand of baseball anymore. Or even Mendoza’s, frankly. Bottom line, it’s about the the Mets as a whole. And as we’ve witnessed across town in the Bronx, along with the other 28 MLB outposts, that means a collaborative effort — maybe with the front office having their thumb on the scale, to varying degrees.
Which brings us back to Tuesday’s chat between Mendoza and Vientos. Standard spring training fare, but useful nonetheless, with the new boss having plenty of these connections to make over the next six weeks. The sooner these happen, the better for Mendoza, and it was probably not a coincidence that Vientos seemed much happier now than he did at any point last season under the four-time Manager of the Year award winner.
That’s not a knock against Buck. Just about fit, and Mendoza — who received rave reviews from his colleagues in pinstripes — seems best suited to handle this transitional phase for the Mets, both as a bridge to the front office and handling the boots on the ground in the dugout.
“He’s a great baseball mind,” Vientos said Tuesday. “He told me, don’t forget what brought you up here. Maximize it and work on things you need to work on. It’s great advice, so I’m going to take it and run with it.”
The advice probably isn’t quite as crucial as Mendoza just taking a few minutes to deliver it. For a young prospect it's important to know that he’s on the manager’s radar. Mendoza seems to understand that’s high atop his to-do list for spring training, more so than the routine drills on fundamentals. He watched Aaron Boone build those bonds in the Yankees’ clubhouse during his tenure as bench coach in the Bronx, only Mendoza won’t have the benefit of a World Series contending roster under his tutelage. He’ll be trying to craft a wild-card threat from the ground up.
“Just creating the connections in our locker room,” Mendoza said. “Getting to know a lot of the new faces. Building those relationships so we start trusting each other.”
Mendoza does have one big advantage: The expectations for the Mets haven’t been this low in a while, so it’s not like he’s on the clock. Even though Mendoza talks about the pressure to win in New York, after experiencing it firsthand with the Yankees, as long as Stearns keeps talking about “sustainable competitiveness,” the front office won’t be grading him solely on his won-loss record. Not yet anyway.
“We’re building that foundation, starting today,” Mendoza said. “That’s going to be the message. We’re not winning a championship on Day One.”
In the meantime, Mendoza already had a few managerial techniques down pat. He tiptoed around questions about centerfield, declining to specify an ironclad role for Brandon Nimmo, as well as the annual six-man rotation conundrum. It’s early, of course, and Mendoza is smart enough to steer away from any potential minefields while he’s still getting used to wearing orange-and-blue.
But six weeks is a long time, especially in Port St. Lucie, and things tend to happen with the Mets. A manager’s mettle isn’t really tested until a crisis evolves, and only then will we get a better feel for how Mendoza pilots his new team. Beyond that, it’s up to the performance on the field, and how the players respond to the new guy in the dugout. Pairing him with a sage presence like John Gibbons as bench coach was a solid move, but Mendoza is the guy in the big chair.
“It’s an honor and a privilege,” Mendoza said.
Incredibly, Mendoza is now the fifth person to be given the title by the Mets since Terry Collins' seven-year tenure ended after the 2017 season, averaging two years apiece (Carlos Beltran never managed a single game before he was fired). The high turnover rate was accelerated by a change in ownership and a revolving door in the front office, but the Mets should be entering a period of stability.
Then again, we thought the same with Buck’s arrival. A year after making the playoffs, he was history. For Mendoza, he’s coming aboard at the right time as a rookie manager. The rest is up to 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.
