Roger Rubin: Mets' Andy Green's encouraging nature makes him perfect fit for young team
Mets manager Andy Green stands in the dugout prior to a game against the Rangers at Globe Life Field on Sept. 22, 2026 in Arlington, TX. Credit: Getty Images/Stacy Revere
It was early in this Mets season when all of the bright expectations for the club began to flicker and just about the middle of it when they essentially went dark. However, as they played out the string, a constellation of young stars began to glow, a group that could be the nucleus of future success.
One doesn’t have to squint to envision next season’s Mets outfield featuring current rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing along with perennial MVP candidate Juan Soto, or a rotation featuring current rookies Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Zac Thornton as three of its five members. In the final months of the ruined season, all five newcomers became potential mainstays for the Mets in 2027 and beyond.
And on Tuesday they learned that the voice that encouraged them on their rapid ascents through the minor leagues — the voice of Andy Green, the organization’s head of player development — would be the one they’d continue to hear after the Mets removed the word “interim” from his title, named him manager and gave him a three-year deal.
They arrived together and they will go forward together.
“Andy brings an ability to connect to the organization in ways that very few people could,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said Tuesday. “He allows us to connect front office to dugout. He allows us to connect minor leagues to major leagues. And he provides us a level of continuity that we need right now and a level of stability and belief for our entire organization.”
Green didn’t have much success managing the Padres from 2016-19, but he had experience and thus was drafted to manage when the Mets were 13 games under .500 at the halfway point of the season and leadership felt it had to move on from Carlos Mendoza.
Green has guided the Mets past the trade-deadline fire sale and to a 39-39 mark after Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the Rangers in Arlington, Texas. More important, the young talent he’d overseen since joining the organization in 2023 continued their ascent.
In the advanced metric wRC+, the average MLB hitter scores 100. Benge was 1% better than average when Green took over and 27% better since (entering play Thursday). Ewing was 8% better than average before the change and 18% better since (entering Thursday).
The improvements are similar for the pitchers. McLean had an ERA of 4.03 before and 2.27 after. Opponents hit .236 against Scott before and .216 after. Thornton, who allowed two runs in five innings in Thursday’s loss, made his second start of the season the day Mendoza was fired and is 5-5 with a 3.15 ERA in his 14 starts during the Green era.
When Cohen bought the Mets, he talked about building a sustainable winner. That’s best done through the draft, and four of the five young stars were selected in 2023 and 2024 (Scott was drafted in 2021).
“Andy has seen all of these younger players from the outset of their professional careers, through inevitable struggles in their developmental arc [and] to ultimately getting . . . to the big leagues,” Stearns said. “Then, in certain cases, he was able to help guide them through the inevitable bumps of . . . an initial major league season.”
On those developmental arcs, Green always communicated that the players were capable of greatness while simultaneously challenging them to meet that belief. That was his philosophy then and it still is now.
“I’m thankful for that history,” Green said. “That’s not necessary to build a winning culture. It is an advantage and something we’re capable of using and have used with these guys. I was a young player in the big leagues wondering if the big league manager believed in me. Zac Thornton’s never had to worry about that for a day since he’s been here. I think that has value, and I’m glad to have been able to bring that value [from] what I did the last few years.”
That managerial style also has landed well with the veterans whom the rookies joined.
“He’s very honest but also very encouraging — that’s a good mix,” Bo Bichette told reporters in Texas on Tuesday. “All you want from a person is honesty . . . but you combine that with knowing he wants the best from you and sees the best in you.”
“He communicates it in a way that you know you react to well,” Marcus Semien said. “You want to work as hard as you can for that guy.”
Green hadn’t adopted this philosophy yet when he managed the Padres. Back then he said he was all about honesty and challenges to his players, but he communicated none of the belief. He adopted it over time, including his four-season stint as bench coach for David Ross with the Cubs.
That evolved philosophy has worked with this new core of young talent, which could usher in a new era of success for the Mets.
“The greatest joy you’ll have in life is if you give your life to elevating everyone else around you,” Green said.
He, as well as the Mets’ fan base, could have a lot more of that in store.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
