{"id":679728,"date":"2026-04-20T11:58:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/679728\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T11:58:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:58:42","slug":"mets-back-carlos-mendoza-during-brutal-11-game-losing-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/679728\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets back Carlos Mendoza during brutal 11-game losing streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Shortly after the Mets<\/a> arrived in Chicago in the midst of a long losing streak, president of baseball operations David Stearns gave a vote of confidence to his embattled manager, Carlos Mendoza.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Mendy is doing a good job,\u201d Stearns said Friday in the Wrigley Field dugout. \u201cI think Mendy is putting players in positions to succeed, and we need to go out and play better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mets have yet to play better. They were swept by the Chicago Cubs over the weekend, extending their losing streak to 11 games<\/a>. It\u2019s the longest such streak for the Mets since 2004, and if they lose the next game, scheduled for Tuesday night at Citi Field, they\u2019ll match their 2002 streak.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to question the job the manager is doing during a losing streak, which is why Mendoza all but expected to have to face it Sunday afternoon, after the Mets lost 2-1 to the Cubs in 10 innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know questions like this are going to come up, but I\u2019m spending my energy on continuing to manage,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cContinue to lead, continue to coach, continue to support. That\u2019s what I\u2019m doing right now \u2014 spending my energy on the things that I can control.\u201d<\/p>\n

It does not appear that Mendoza has lost the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cMendy is our guy,\u201d said shortstop Francisco Lindor<\/a>, a key clubhouse leader. \u201cHe\u2019s our leader. He\u2019s in control, and he\u2019s done a tremendous job. We just haven\u2019t executed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Closer Devin Williams seemed almost offended that he was asked about the management of the third-year skipper. When asked about Mendoza, the right-hander was emphatic in his message: This is not the manager\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t swing a bat and he doesn\u2019t throw a baseball,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in a lot of these games. They\u2019ve been close. I mean, him or somebody else is not affecting that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendoza can only do so much with the roster built by Stearns and the front office. The roster isn\u2019t going to change drastically anytime soon, so if you ask the guys in the clubhouse, another voice isn\u2019t going to get any more out of the team than Mendoza\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re not getting the job done, somebody else isn\u2019t going to just magically flip a switch and we\u2019re going to get it done,\u201d Williams said. \u201cHe\u2019s putting guys in good positions. We\u2019re not performing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams could have an issue with how he\u2019s being used, but that doesn\u2019t seem to be the case. Without a natural place to slot him in, Williams has pitched only twice in the last week, and had eight days of rest before pitching Wednesday in a loss to the Dodgers. The results haven\u2019t been great: In seven games this season, he has a 7.11 ERA with two saves and one blown save.<\/p>\n

Still, Williams isn\u2019t entertaining any arguments about his usage.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to be there, be prepared and finish games when they get me the ball,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t do that today.\u201d<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s game, many in-game decisions aren\u2019t even dictated by the manager, though it\u2019s generally believed that Mendoza has a fair amount of autonomy in the dugout. Every decision is going to be scrutinized in New York, win or lose, regardless of who is making them.<\/p>\n

The decision to have Craig Kimbrel pitch to Nico Hoerner in the 10th, instead of walking him to set up a double play, could have been made by the analytics team. Or, it could have been made by a manager who can\u2019t trust his middle infielders to turn one right now.<\/p>\n

If they had walked Hoerner and the next hitter, Michael Busch, it would have loaded the bases and set up a force-out at home. The Mets haven\u2019t been adept at those plays this season.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, this seems to fall on Stearns. He\u2019s the architect of the roster coached and managed by his handpicked staff. In his third season running the baseball operations department, he has effectively put his stamp on the team, doing so without emotion or an attachment to players of teams past.<\/p>\n

Now, the Mets are playing in a similar fashion \u2014 without emotion, or Grimace, or OMG, or anything remotely fun. The Mets aren\u2019t supposed to be this buttoned up and corporate, yet the team on the field is playing like a group of co-workers who barely know each other and can\u2019t wait for their next Teams meeting to end.<\/p>\n

Fans are losing their emotional attachment. Why would they want to show up for games when this is the product on the field? Where is the entertainment value? Who are the heroes they\u2019re supposed to root for?<\/p>\n

There is no lack of talent, but the Mets are lacking quite a bit. They\u2019re lacking an identity and chemistry on the field. The manager can\u2019t provide those attributes; he can only help the team find them on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all of us,\u201d said left-hander David Peterson. \u201cWe\u2019re in this together. Everyone has a part in this, and we\u2019ve got to stick together. Everyone has to take responsibility and accountability. We all need to look in the mirror and see what we can do better to help this team move in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Shortly after the Mets arrived in Chicago in the midst of a long losing streak, president…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,1443,161,5850,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":{"0":"post-679728","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-carlos-mendoza","10":"tag-cubs","11":"tag-losing-streak","12":"tag-mets","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-mets","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkmets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116436922455379123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679728","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=679728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}