![\"Carlos](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2271521522_c7c26f-e1776457618999.jpg\")
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Carlos Mendoza and the New York Mets are struggling.<\/p>\n
New York Mets<\/a> manager Carlos Mendoza<\/a> is \u201cdoing a great job,\u201d according to Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns.<\/p>\n The Mets have struggled out of the gate so far in 2026, going 7-13<\/a> through the first 20 games of the season, including their current nine-game losing streak. Given that the Mets have the second-highest payroll in MLB<\/a> at $381 million, the team has been an utter disappointment so far this year, just one season after they missed the playoffs by one game.<\/p>\n During the offseason, the Mets handed Bo Bichette<\/a> a three-year, $126 million contract to play third base for the first time in his career, and the results have not been pretty so far. Meanwhile, outfielder Juan Soto<\/a> is on the injured list, and shortstop Francisco Lindor<\/a> has been criticized for making errors in the field. Overall, it has been a bad start to the year for the Mets, and it has some fans and media speculating that Mendoza could fall on the sword for the team\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n However, while many believe Mendoza is on the hot seat, Stearns threw cold water on that idea. Speaking to reporters Friday in Chicago after the Mets opened up a weekend series against the Chicago Cubs<\/a>, Stearns said he is committed to Mendoza managing the Mets going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cNo. I think Mendy is doing a really good job. I think he\u2019s putting our players in position to succeed. He\u2019s enormously consistent. So, no, I don\u2019t agree with that,\u201d Stearns said of whether or not Mendoza should be more heavily scrutinized (via SNY<\/a>).<\/p>\n When asked why he is so confident that Mendoza is the man to lead the Mets back to the playoffs, Stearns said there are several reasons for that.<\/p>\n \u201cI think both in terms of how he\u2019s managing in the clubhouse, how he\u2019s getting guys to the right pockets, whether it\u2019s matchups out of the bullpen, the right matchups in games. I think he\u2019s doing a good job,\u201d Stearns said.<\/p>\n Carlos Mendoza is in His Third Year With the Mets<\/p>\n The Mets hired Mendoza to be the team\u2019s manager ahead of the 2024 season. In his first year as the Mets\u2019 leader, the team went 89-73 and made the playoffs as a Wild Card team. They beat the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> in the Wild Card Series and the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> in the Divisional Series before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> in the Championship Series.<\/p>\n However, 2025 was a step backwards for the Mets. After signing Soto to an MLB-record contract for 15 years and $765 million, the Mets missed the playoffs by just one game. This past offseason, the Mets signed Bichette to a big-money contract and traded for ace Freddy Peralta<\/a> from the Brewers, while letting former first base slugger Pete Alonso<\/a> go. So far, those offseason moves haven\u2019t paid off, as the Mets are in last place in the NL East after 20 games this season, behind low-payroll teams like the Miami Marlins<\/a> and Washington Nationals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mets Are in a Tough Division<\/p>\n The NL East is a tough division, so the Mets can\u2019t dig themselves into too big a hole, or else they won\u2019t be able to recover.<\/p>\n The Atlanta Braves<\/a> have had a bounce-back year so far and are leading the division, while the Phillies, Marlins, and Nationals are all in the mix for an NL Wild Card spot. The Mets, meanwhile, are in the division\u2019s basement despite having the heaviest payroll of any team in it. It has been a bad season, and the team is going to need all 26 of its players, plus Mendoza, to do a better job if they are going to turn things around and make a legitimate postseason push. It\u2019s still early enough that they can turn it around, but it has to start now, before it\u2019s far too late.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdam Martin<\/a> Adam Martin is a sports journalist with over 15 years of experience. He has a speciality in MMA, while also covering the Big 4 Sports. Adam is currently a contributor to Heavy.com, with previous experience working for The Toronto Star, Sportsnet, theScore, Bookies, BJPenn.com, and MMAOddsbreaker.com. More about Adam Martin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Mets\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Carlos Mendoza and the New York Mets are struggling. New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza is \u201cdoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":{"0":"post-677885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mets","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-mets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkmets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116422053497966649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}