Steve Sica- Where do the Mets go From Here?

Photo By : Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Going into 2026 there were plenty of question marks surrounding the Mets. A whole new roster, new core, and the usual amount of holes a team goes into Opening Day with. I don't think anyone, not even the most negative Met fan would've imagined that 22 games into the season the Mets would be 7-15, tied for the worst record in baseball, and on the heels of an 11-game losing streak. The longest such streak in over 20 years.

Social and traditional media are ablaze with finger pointing at who should shoulder the blame. The manager, the most popular scapegoat in this situation, has taken the brunt of the burden. David Stearns, the architect of the team, has received a lot of second guessing on how he built this roster after jettisoning several fan favorites in the off season. Francisco Lindor, who many fans across social media claim had a key role in ordering players like Nimmo and McNeil off the team, and is now off to his usual slow start in April, isn't winning many fans over, and it's reminiscent of his first season in Queens.

Meet the mess is what fans might be singing tonight when the Mets return to Citi Field, hoping stop their losing streak before it hits a dozen in a row. Everything has seemingly gone wrong for this team. Juan Soto has been on the IL, and I think we're all realizing just how valuable a piece he is when he's in the Met lineup. The starting pitching has been on and off, the bullpen is looking as bad as last year, and the lineup is abysmal. 

Not that there weren't warning signs of this before. Since mid-June of 2025, the Mets have the second worse record in baseball. If you stuck these first three weeks of this season to the backend of 2025, you'd think you're just watching the same horrible rerun over and over again.

So where can the Mets go from here? While the poor play on the field is the same as it was over the last three months of 2025, the cast of characters is very different. That's why it's very easy to blame the manager, Carlos Mendoza here. I don't want to pile on, and I don't think that a team's struggles on the field rest solely on the manager, but at some point, you have to look at the facts here. He's really the only constant from last year to this year. The team is playing with the same lifeless attitude they had which cost them a playoff berth last September. 

Any good feelings from 2024 for Stearns, Mendoza, and Lindor are all but gone. They're wonderful memories, but fans want to see results now, not live in the past. Speaking of the past, firing a manager in the first half of the season has had mixed results for the Mets in their history.

The Mets haven't done such a thing since 2008, when Willie Randolph was relieved of his Managerial duties on June 17th with the Mets floundering below .500 at. 34-35 and coming of an historic collapse the season before. Sound familiar?

Jerry Manuel would take over from there and the Mets did take off. They went 55-38 and stayed in playoff contention until the season's final day when they lost the Wild Card to Milwaukee in a 4-2 loss to the Marlins. I always think that if the Mets got into the playoffs that season, 2008 is viewed very differently. Even if they went on to lose in the NLDS. They would've made an inspiring summer comeback, similar to what they did in 2024. At the very least, Shea Stadium would've gotten to host another playoff series.

The last time the Mets fired a manager this early in the season was 1993. Jeff Torborg was let go after the Mets got off to a 13-25 start. Dallas Green didn't fare much better leading them to a 46-78 record in ultimately led to a 103 loss season. 

Firing a manager isn't a cure all. A new Manager isn't going to get this anemic offense to start producing. He isn't going to wave a magic wand and produce a ten game winning streak. What it does though is send a message to the fans, players, and media alike, that the front office is aware that the team is grossly underperforming and hasn't lived up to the expectations of a $300 million plus roster for almost a year.

After axing pretty much his entire coaching staff over the offseason, the leash for Carlos Mendoza was already short coming into this season. Mendoza's days in Queen might be numbered. What started off as a Honeymoon phase in 2024 has now turned into a tremulous relationship that may have finally run its course.

Either the Mets turn this around and become the first  in history to lose 11 in a row and still make the postseason, or Mendoza is history.