Reese Kaplan -- Long Overdue Praise for Manager Carlos Mendoza

One of David Stearns’ most accomplished moves during his first offseason as the head honcho of the Mets was his decision not to replace Hall of Fame destined Buck Showalter with another seasoned managerial professional, but instead to take a flyer on a well regarded by ultimately inexperienced rookie in Carlos Mendoza.  

From the time he arrived to the Mets he immediately impressed people with his baseball knowledge and articulate answers to the endless interviews regarding hitters, strategies, slumps, bullpen and the starting rotation.  Being new among his 29 other managerial compatriots, no one knew exactly what to expect.  

You sometimes read stories about an unlikely hero coming from out of nowhere to lead his troops forward to victory.  Well, that certainly wasn’t how things started out for Mendoza.  First were the injuries.  He started the year minus ace starter Kodai Senga, without the availability of familiar if unspectacular recovering David Peterson and with the late arrival of star DH J.D. Martinez.

Then came the batch of in-season injuries to Brooks Raley, Tylor Megill, Drew Smith, Reed Garrett, Sean-Reid Foley, Dedniel Nunez, Starling Marte, Francisco Alvarez and others.  The hitting slumps early in the year were horrific and if not for the better than average pitching from some of the healthier starters it looked as if the season’s ending record for Mendoza might mirror what Showalter did in his Mets denouement.

During all of the bad times in April and May Mendoza maintained an even keel.  He showed enough emotion to get himself thrown out of a game (which probably ingratiated him to the fans and some of his players).  He rotated the lineups to try to find a winning combination.  He moved starters to the bullpen to try to patch things up out there.  He’s welcomed an assortment of newcomers all year long as the roster has no longer had the stagnation of years past.  

Then magic happened in June.  The Mets all of the sudden started getting better pitching.  The bullpen was a patchwork of healthy bodies and it performed.  The hitters emerged from their sleepwalking early season and began delivering the runs necessary to win ballgames.  As of August 8th the Mets actually passed the Braves in the standings and sit a surprising 8 games behind the seemingly invincible Phillies.  

Bear in mind that this new found competence on the field that resulted in winning games came with Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Alvarez and most of the bench other than Luis Torrens and Jose Iglesias having subpar seasons or extended periods of not being terribly dependable.  

At that same time Luis Severino has begun showing signs of fatigue as his last few appearances were rather rocky.  Jose Quintana is up and down.  Christian Scott and Kodai Senga remain injured.  David Peterson has been a most pleasant surprise after hip problems made it more difficult for him to pitch effectively in the past.  Sean Manaea has become the staff ace which is not something anyone predicted.  As of early August newcomer Paul Blackburn has made two very effective starts as well.

The most interesting aspect of all of this success is that manager Carlos Mendoza comes across the exact same way he did when the team was losing.  He is showing the maturity, stability and competence to underscore David Stearns’ choice in hiring him.  While people sit back and offer up accolades to Francisco Lindor and others for helping to turn things around, the truth is that the unheralded manager deserves quite a bit of the credit. He's working towards a grade of A.