Where does Carlos Mendoza’s rookie season rank in Mets’ history among first-year skippers? Really there’s only three choices, and they’re the first three on this list. And it probably depends on your personal preference (and No. 4 could easily be argued up higher and I’ll happily take a listen).
But for this one voter, here’s the list (based on full first year, excluding all interim tenures, which why Bud Harrelson — who never got a full year — is not here).
1. Mendoza, 2024
When you consider where they were when they were 11 games under .500, and where they were Friday afternoon, playing the Dodgers in the fifth game of the National League Championship Series still sitting three games away from the World Series? That gives him the edge. We’ll see from here how he rises up the all-time list [which as we speak, is 1A) Gil Hodges and 1B) Davey Johnson].
2. Johnson, 1984
Maybe you have to remember just how hopeless the Mets were from the seven solid seasons from 1977 through 1983, just how desolate Shea Stadium was. Yes, there were stars in the system and stars on the way, and Keith Hernandez had already agreed to stay. But Davey’s leadership was the catalyst for so much of it. By rights, No. 5 should already have been retired long ago by the Mets, and when the time comes for David Wright it would be an entirely different number.
3. Buck Showalter, 2022
Forget how his tenure ended. The Mets went from 77 wins to 101 in a single year, and even Johnson’s 22-game improvement in ’84 can’t top that. The Mets went from a slipshod operation to a professional one overnight, and many of the seeds Showalter planted are still in evidence.
4. Gil Hodges, 1968
So much has been written and said about the job Hodges did in 1969, but was in ’68 when his immediate infusion of seriousness put an end to the team’s “lovable losers” image. And it was an awfully hard job going from 61 wins to 73; on Sept. 24 that year he suffered a heart attack in the dugout in Atlanta. But exactly one year later, Joe Torre bounced into a 6-4-3 double play and the Mets were champs of the N.L. East.
5. Bobby Valentine, 1997
Bobby Vee was given the latitude to weed out part of the roster he frankly termed “losing players,” and the ones he kept played miles above their heads in winning 88 games, the most the franchise had collected in eight years. There’s no telling how long the Mets’ post-‘80s funk might have lasted if he’d never shown up.
6. Willie Randolph, 2005
Randolph’s rookie season was an eerie blueprint for Mendoza’s right down to the 0-5 start. But the Mets recovered from that, improved by 12 wins from ’04, and planted seeds that would blossom magnificently a year later.
7. Yogi Berra, 1972
The Mets won 31 of the first 42 games Yogi ever managed for them but once injuries hit he had no answers. And almost from the start many of his players grumbled loudly about his approach.
Follow noti.group’s coverage of the Mets in the postseason:
8. Terry Collins, 2011
His way wouldn’t bear fruit for a few years but he ended a lot of the nonsense that had proliferated before him.
9. Wes Westrum, 1966
For the first time, the Mets lost last place (inching up to ninth, ahead of the Cubs and better than the Yankees, who finished 10th in the A.L.). For the only time in their first five years, they didn’t lose at least 109 games (66-95). The Mets regressed in ’67 and Westrum’s fine work is largely forgotten, which is a shame.
10. Joe Frazier, 1976
The last bright season for a while, Frazier wasn’t a highly-regarded skipper in his time or subsequently, but the 86-76 was the Mets’ second-best record of all time and would stay that way until 1984’s 90-72.
11. Dallas Green, 1994
The players strike ended what could have been one of the great single-season turnarounds in team history. Still, 59-103 to 55-58 merits high marks.
12. Casey Stengel, 1962
Now that he doesn’t have the distinction of overseeing the worst team in baseball history, it’s fair to give him credit for single-handedly providing credibility for a 40-160 team that never would’ve done so on its own.
13. Joe Torre, 1978
At 66-96 you could make the argument that these Mets wildly overachieved. Never had a fighting chance in Queens. But he’d have his day.
14. Jerry Manuel, 2009
Room-temperature guy for a high-octane job. Never a fit.
15. Luis Rojas, 2020
Smart skipper, good man. Just not ready for the job yet.
16. Art Howe, 2003
He delivered a daily example of just how right-on the “Moneyball” description of him was. Mets might’ve been better off with Philip Seymour Hoffman.
17. Jeff Torborg, 1992
The wrong man at the wrong time for the wrong team. In almost every way.
18. George Bamberger, 1982
Never wanted the job in the first place. And it showed.
18. Mickey Callaway, 2018
For obvious reasons. The worst of the worst.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
