Laura Albanese: In wake of Carlos Mendoza firing, Mets' David Stearns is on deck for accountability
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns speaks to the media at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns eschewed his traditional quarter-zip sweater Friday afternoon at Citi Field in favor of a charcoal gray suit — an undertaker dressed as a mourner.
“We haven’t been able to get this going this year, and I take responsibility for that,” Stearns said grimly hours after Carlos Mendoza took responsibility in the most tangible way possible, losing his managerial job in the midst of his third year at the helm.
“I also have the responsibility to push us forward, to look for solutions and to make difficult decisions and change when I think it’s needed,” Stearns said. “I understand there’s no magic bullet here. There’s no one change that is going to immediately turn this around.”
Andy Green, formerly the team’s senior vice president of player development, will serve as the interim manager — though Green himself noted that he has no current managerial aspirations and is doing this as a favor to the organization.
In the short term, that’s not a bad thing: A team that has crumbled under the burden of its own unmet expectations probably can learn something from Green, who noted that he has the freedom to manage “without the baggage that I took into my last job [as Padres manager], when my identity was at stake.”
But in the long term, it’s another unknown for an organization that seems to perpetually live on baseball’s tectonic plates.
Who can forget the revolving door of front-office officials, of managers, and under Stearns’ guidance this year, a slew of new players and coaches. It was no wonder that, not for the first time this season, Bo Bichette noted that “for whatever reason, we haven’t come together and found what our identity is.”
All this change, over two different ownership groups, and the Mets continue to be the Mets.
Two things can be true: Stearns appeared legitimately upset at the firing; it’s clear he has deep respect for Mendoza and that he took no joy in letting him go. But Mendoza was just another loose brick in this rapidly deconstructing game of Jenga, and although it was nice for Stearns to say the failure was his own, his news conference did little to indicate in what specific ways he intends to take responsibility for it.
Let’s go through the abbreviated list:
First, Stearns was asked in what ways he felt his offseason projections fell short. “That evaluation is ongoing,” he said before switching to the plural. “Clearly, we’ve fallen short.”
When asked if he considered stepping down, Stearns demurred. “I believe we’re building the foundation of an organization that can deliver what we all want,” he said. “I don’t believe that our record on the field this year is indicative of some of the advancements that we’ve made in the organization.”
When he was asked if he put Mendoza in a position to succeed, he sidestepped the question. “I think when you look at our record right now, this is not where we want to be,” he said. “I thought we were going to have a better year.”
Did his many drastic changes create the Mets’ woes? “I certainly think it’s possible,” he said. “It’s probably a variety of things, and that is possible.”
The Mets entered Friday night’s game against the Phillies with six straight losses and a 34-47 record. They were 72-102 dating to mid-June last year.
Credit where it’s due: Stearns routinely has taken questions from the media, many of them unpleasant. But he also has spearheaded two seasons of breathtaking underperformance, and the auspice of accountability no longer is enough.
We know the Mets have underperformed. We know they have dealt with unexpected injuries. We know that they are constantly “evaluating” the follies that led them here in the first place. The rest is just a mix and match of identical talking points — the verbal equivalent of a Taco Bell menu with 20 different dishes using the same five ingredients.
What would be refreshing — what the fans deserve — is clear insight on what went wrong, how Stearns’ decisions led to it and what’s being put in place to avoid a similar fate.
Stearns wasn’t the only one to take responsibility Friday, and you can argue his players did a better job of it. Though few were in the clubhouse before Friday night’s game, Francisco Lindor and Bichette stood up to the metaphorical plate.
“We failed Mendy, I failed Mendy,” Lindor said. “This one is on us as well . . . This is not on him. It’s more on us, the players, that we didn’t perform to our capabilities.”
Bichette didn’t equivocate when asked how much the players were responsible for the firing. “Essentially, it’s all of it,” he said.
“If we were playing better, he’d still be here,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate that he had to take the fall.”
And that’s what it comes down to, right? Mendoza was the last line of defense. His coaching staff was gutted last year, and on Friday, it was his turn.
Now all eyes are on Stearns, and you know that responsibility he was talking about? Well, it’s now real in the way that it was for Mendoza on Friday, when the undertaker made the call.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
