Similar to the rest of the franchise, Carlos Mendoza has had himself a rollercoaster of an offseason thus far.
During an appearance on the “Foul Territory” podcast on Friday, Mendoza opened up on his eventful past few months, which started with the skipper firing a large chunk of his coaching staff following the Mets’ disappointing 2025 season.
Under Mendoza, the organization let go of pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes, bench coach John Gibbons and third base coach Mike Sarbaugh, moves that the manager said were the “toughest days” of his career.
“I’m not going to lie they were probably some of the toughest days of my professional career,” Mendoza said.
In the weeks following the mass firing, the Mets hired Tony Snitker as its hitting coach and Justin Willard as pitching coach, along with promoting director of hitting Jeff Albert to oversee the hitting program in Queens.
“You develop these relationships with these coaches — we worked together for a couple of years — and then you know you are going to have to make some tough decisions,” he added. “You spend more time with them than you do your own family that they become your family, and when you’re making those phone calls, it just breaks your heart.”
Despite the rough start to the offseason, Mendoza has seen an upturn with the Mets going on a massive free agency spree in January, signing Bo Bichette and trading for Luis Robert and Freddy Peralta all within days of each other.
Mendoza insisted that Bichette’s signing was not a “panic pivot” because the Mets failed to land Kyle Tucker, saying that the organization was “prepared” to give the two-time All-Star a deal.
“I don’t see it as a panic because we laid down that foundation,” Mendoza said of Bichette’s signing. “We were prepared, we had two calls with him. …This wasn’t like ‘oh, Tucker went somewhere else and the very next day here we are signing Bo.’ We had meetings with him.”
Just days after Bichette signed a three-year, $126 million deal with the Mets, David Stearns made a trade with the White Sox for Robert, giving up Luisangel Acuna and minor league arm Truman Pauley in return.
Mendoza liked the deal, but acknowledged that Robert — who has missed 114 games over the past two seasons — needs to stay on the field, and that the Mets’ medical staff has already been in contact with the outfielder.
“When he’s healthy, he’s one of the best,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza also said that immediately after the Mets traded for Peralta — and reliever Tobias Myers — on Wednesday, he got on the phone and had a “very good conversation” with the 29-year-old righty.
Despite the huge splash the Mets have made over the past week, Mendoza claimed that they are not done building the 2026 roster.
“As a manager you appreciate having an owner like Steve and Alex [Cohen] who are willing to put in all the resources — that’s a really good feeling,” Mendoza said.
“We feel really good where we’re headed as an organization,” he added.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
