Mets' Carlos Mendoza Backed to Return for 2026 MLB Season by David Stearns

New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Tuesday he feels Carlos Mendoza is the "right person" to return as manager next season.

"Mendy's doing a great job... I think he's the right person for this job," Stearns said when asked on The Show podcast with the New York Post's Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman if Mendoza would be back with the club in 2026.

Mendoza signed a three-year contract with the Mets ahead of the 2024 season. The deal included a team option for 2027.

Questions regarding the security of Mendoza's job come as the Mets, ranked by Spotrac as having the highest active payroll in MLB, slipped to the bottom of the NL Wild Card standings while going 8-14 so far in August.

The Cincinnati Reds head into Tuesday just 2.5 games back of the Mets for the last Wild Card spot in the NL.

Mendoza was hired in late 2023 amid a period of high managerial turnover for the Mets, which had gone through four managers in seven seasons prior to the 2024 campaign.

The Mets started Mendoza's first season at the helm 0-5, and continued to hover well below .500 with a 22-33 record as of the end of May 2024.

Mendoza then orchestrated a comeback that not only saw the Mets clinch a postseason berth in October but also saw the team make it as far as the NLCS for the first time since the 2015 World Series. He finished his rookie season with a third-place finish in NL Manager of the Year voting.

The Mets' slump in the club's second season under Mendoza has been influenced by injuries as well as by underperformance from key players like Francisco Lindor and Kodai Senga.

If Mendoza can help those players out of their slumps while keeping the Mets in position for a postseason berth, he could further increase the likelihood he will be back for the final guaranteed season of his current contract.