Mind on My Mendy

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The original plan was to profile Carlos Enrique Mendoza sometime after all of the players were given their own Met Files. But life gets in the way of plans, doesn’t it? Mendoza, along with Francisco Alvarez, Luis Torrens, and Luisangel Acuña, are from Venezuela, the country that the United States occupied over the weekend when they captured and extracted President Nicolás Maduro. As of this writing, there has been no news at all regarding the safety of any of the four Venezuelan Mets and their families. The most that’s known right now is that the whole thing is a “clusterfuck” and “several” front offices don’t know how the military operation will affect how players and coaches can leave the country. 

So. Let’s talk about Mendy. He was born in the Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto in November 1979. He was raised in Venezuela and attended college there. Carlos signed with the San Francisco Giants in 1996 as a non-drafted free agent. He played in the minors for 13 seasons, making it as high as Triple-A twice, once in the Giants organization and once in the New York Yankees org, but he never made it to The Show. Not as a player, that is. He must have a million stories of his time in the sticks, in places like Salem-Keizer and Norwich and Pensacola putting together a lifetime .232 batting average. Maybe Mendoza will share those someday. That would be nice.

Mendoza began his coaching career in 2009 with the Staten Island Yankees. After serving as a coach for the Charleston RiverDogs the following year, in 2011 he got his first chance as a skipper, helming the Yankees of the Gulf Coast League, the bottom rung of the ladder, but a rung nonetheless. The GCL Yankees won the league title. He went up one rung in 2012 as the manager of the RiverDogs. For that season, Mendoza pledged to not get ejected, lest he teach his charges to make excuses. Young Mendy though couldn’t help himself that August 23rd, getting himself tossed after arguing a blown call in a mix of English and Spanish. Oh well. The RiverDogs finished 73-63, good for second place. To this day, Mendoza has never managed a team to a losing record.

After managing the 2012 RiverDogs, Mendoza settled into a role as a roving defensive instructor for the next couple of seasons. He was the Yankees’ infield coordinator from 2013-2017 and the organization’s quality control coach in 2018-2019. Finally, in 2020, in an otherwise awful year, Carlos Mendoza finally made it - he was named a bench coach on Aaron Boone’s big league staff. 

And that’s where he was for the next four years until the Mets came calling. Mendoza, after interviewing with other teams for their open managerial positions over the years, finally heard a “yes”. He became the Mets’ 25th manager in club history on November 13, 2023, the fourth Venezuelan-born skipper in MLB history. When Carlos was introduced, his jersey number was 28, because he met his wife Francis, the mother of his two sons Adrian and Andres, on a September 28th. When J.D. Martinez signed with the Mets late in spring training in 2024 though, Mendy switched to number 64. 

Mendoza’s first year managing a big league club was a wild ride, one which ended with Carlos finishing third in NL Manager of the Year voting. The Mets began the season 0-5 and 24-35 to ultimately win 89 games, just enough to reach the postseason, where they won both the wild card series and the division series. Mendoza was credited with not losing his cool when it looked like the team was going nowhere. Of course, he managed to get ejected twice during the season - the guy isn’t made of stone. He’s someone that has the players’ back. 

2025 was a different story. After a strong first two months, it all fell apart. Mendoza’s bullpen decisions were at times baffling, usually infuriating, possibly influenced by mandates from the front office. His composure in the macro sense came off as being too passive when the losses piled up. Still, with weeks left to go in the season, President of Baseball Operations David Stearns assured reporters that Mendoza will return as manager in 2026, and he kept his word even when the Mets lost on the final day of the season to be denied a playoff spot. Considering what Stearns did to the core of the roster during the offseason, it’s clear at least he doesn’t think Carlos Mendoza was at fault. 

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The Mets are one of several teams - the Yankees, Cubs, Giants, Astros and Orioles - who have talked to the Marlins about their very good RHP Edward Cabrera. The fact the Mets have all of that competition leads me to think they won’t win the Cabrera sweepstakes. Besides, why would the Marlins trade within their division, especially to the Mets, the team whose lives they seemingly love to ruin?

IF Kazuma Okamoto signed with the Blue Jays, while RHP Kona Takahashi decided to return to Japan. It doesn’t appear that the Mets were in on either.

The New York Post asked current New York Yankee Paul Blackburn about the differences between the 2024 Mets and 2025 Mets clubhouses. Yes, Blackburn was technically on the ‘24 team. He was on the 2024 Mets like Christian Laettner was on the original Dream Team. Anyway, Blackburn stated the obvious, that the ‘25 iteration of the Mets had a “different vibe” compared to the ‘24 squad. He pointed out something that we could have guessed, that J.D. Martinez and Jose Iglesias had a big impact, and of course, neither were Mets in ‘25. But it’s hard to blame Stearns for not bringing them back - nobody signed Martinez and he wasn’t interested in coaching, and Iglesias was simply not good at baseball last season. One quote hurt though, I must admit. “When I showed up to the Yankees, it was very noticeable how everyone was pulling on the same rope,” Blackburn said. “Guys seemed to really like each other and fight for each other. There was a lot of chemistry in the clubhouse. That’s not how it was with the Mets [last season].’’ 

You know who seems to have good chemistry with everyone? Jonah Tong. He posted a bunch of photos to Instagram of his 2025. One picture featured Carson Benge attempting to fix a tire. 

Get to know LHP prospect Zach Thornton why don’t ya?

According to a redditor, their Mets ticket rep said Amazin’ Day is not happening this year and is a “biannual” thing. Well that’s awfully convenient.

Pitcher List released their Mets top fantasy baseball prospect list.

Manny Randwaha on MLB.com is bullish on both Devin Williams and Luke Weaver.

MLB.com picked a prospect breakout candidate for each organization. For the Mets, it was RHP Peter Kussow. In the blurb for Kussow, it was written that the Mets “had one of the best pitching development departments in 2025.”

On this day in 2010, the Mets signed RHP R.A. Dickey to a minor league contract. He’d win the Cy Young two years later and was flipped for Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud. Not bad.