What the Mets Front Office Is Thinking Right Now

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]Zack, let's move to the Mets, you mentioned them.

[00:00:02]You used to run the front office there.

[00:00:04]What do you think is going through that front office right now when they make such drastic changes in the off season and clearly so far it's not working.

[00:00:12]It's not working so much that it could cost them their season this early in the season. It's a very competitive National League. I have a feeling they're probably going to use Carlos Mendoza as the scapegoat. I mean, they just hired a new coaching staff. You can't fire the players, they just brought a lot of them on. What do you think is happening and what do you see happening? Like what are they saying internally and then what do you think is going to happen for them to try and light a spark?

[00:00:37]Well, I you know, I feel for them is my reaction. I feel for David Stearns because I know how stressful these times can be. We've had really bad times in in my career in Boston and you know, we had a tough stretch in the second half of the season when I was with the Mets and and and it can be really challenging and I know there's also brings welcomes a lot of noise from the outside or from you know, ownership asking you questions about you know, what are we going to do today? You know, it's an everyday thing of how are we going to fix this? We have to do something and I think a lot of times you're trying to avoid being reactionary. You're trying to avoid that trap of we have to do something. So you just do something for the sake of doing it rather than having a plan of what what will actually make us better and I think that's the challenge every GM has when they're in that situation. So I'm sure it's a stressful time internally.

[00:01:28]You know, I don't like and I don't really know what's going on there internally, but I would imagine there's a lot of stress and a lot of time being spent trying to figure out and diagnose what's going wrong and how can we fix it?

[00:01:42]All right. So how do you know? How do you know when it's time? You said you fired the coaches in '21. How do you know when it's time to fire coaches or managers? What what's the Is there a clue? Is there a tip? Is there a point?

[00:01:54]Is there something that happens or is it just a feel based thing and you say, okay, this could work today.

[00:02:02]>> [sighs and gasps] >> Honestly, in my experience when that happens in season it's just a lot of times it's throwing stuff against the wall. I don't actually This may sound surprising cuz I did fire two hitting coaches in that year, but I don't actually think it's that effective to fire coaches in the middle of a season. I think it's much more effective to do that in the off season to have a process to evaluate things properly really to have time to evaluate things properly and to have a real process in bringing replacements. Now, if you feel like you have really good people ready to step in and do a great job, then it's a little bit of of a different equation and you can feel like you know, this guy's ready to go. He's probably going to be our next guy or whatever it may be and that could make sense.

[00:02:50]Um but a lot of times I believe these decisions are made really without enough focus on the alternatives and what whether there would actually be real impact because realistically it's hard to transition coaches in the middle of a season and those relationships take time to build and you know, how they can have an impact. It could be hard, but there are also times where if it's toxic in a clubhouse, that's when a change makes sense because you just want to you know, try to just get away from the toxicity and I think I've seen that more not in season, but you know, there is I've seen real changes in clubhouses going from a really tough situation or bad situation to even a neutral one. It just feels so much better and people it frees people up to focus on what they're doing. So, you know, if that exists, then maybe that's the time to do it as soon as possible.

[00:03:45]Are you saying Do you feel like the Mets have a toxic situation or are you just saying just in general? I'm talking in general. I actually so I like Mandy a lot. I've talked to him several times in the past. We interviewed him in Boston. He was a finalist before we brought Alex back. Um so I'm a I'm a fan of his. So, you know I and I say that because of his demeanor, because of the way he communicates with people and I have no idea how how that's going in New York from other people's perspectives, but no, I'm not saying that there's a toxic clubhouse there and there there doesn't seem to be anything coming out like that. That's you know, like I said before in Boston, there were some things kind of coming out that made me look a little sideways at what I was reading, but I haven't really seen that as much with New York. I think it's just players aren't performing and and it's hard to figure out why some of them, you know, Boston may have this too where you have a lot of some young players that are haven't established themselves and you're trying to figure out what are they going to be? Maybe some of them will be a lot better than this. Maybe some of them just weren't as good as maybe you thought. So it it's always hard to to figure that out, but no, I'm not saying that about the Mets at all.

[00:04:55]Is it possible to just stick with who you got or and not listen to the national or even local when you're talking about being in New York? Like just stick with it.

[00:05:06]As as Charlie Manuel always says, water levels out. These are good players. They should get better. So ultimately, if you're sticking with it or is that just not possible as your seat as a GM or assistant GM? Is that just not possible or else somebody's going to come to you and be like, well, you're fired for sticking with it so long. And so you're saving your job.

[00:05:28]Well, yeah, I mean it depends on what the dynamic is above, right? Like if I don't think most GMs that I know and most people in the game they're not paying attention to the noise when it comes to like, you know, sports media and fans, but it does impact you when it starts creeping into the building, right?

[00:05:46]Whether whether that's your owner or you know, senior you know, C-suite leadership in the business side, whatever it may be. It could be in the clubhouse even. So, if if it's seeping in, it doesn't matter. You can't control but if it's seeping in at all, it could be a problem and you know, I I think but I like I said, I don't think most GMs are making decisions off of that, but their lives can be affected by it because the way the way I have always looked at this is the farther away from the field you are, the more the less control you feel like you have, which is true and you know, meaning like the fans are the farthest away from the field, but so is but the owners probably right there. The GM's a little closer. The manager's closer. The players are obviously and the perspective gets that's when emotion can lead decision-making because you feel like I don't have control of this. It's frustrating. I just need to make a change and I think the the key is to is to ride the wave sometimes. It's a roller coaster and if you're living day by day, it could be hard. Hey, those teams we're talking about had terrible have had terrible Aprils, but it's April. It's not unprecedented for teams to start playing better than that. I think you know, the people that built the roster have to look themselves in the eyes and say, you know, did we build a good enough roster? Maybe it's too early to tell on some players, but that's always part of it and I would do the same thing if I'm in there in their seats.

[00:07:03]But you know, that I I think yes, sticking with it is definitely an option and probably most of the time with the exception being what I was talking about before, really untenable toxic situation is to stick with what you're doing.

[00:07:19]Okay, Zack. Well, two two quick things that what you just said. One, the Mets already got rid of all their coaches.

[00:07:23]They did in the off season.

[00:07:24]I mean, they changed them all. So then I guess the next step would be Mandy cuz David Stearns isn't firing himself. And then the second thing is what you said about um Jeez, it just blanked on me. Uh Uh what you said something about uh uh For answer that and I'll get you the the second question, but it was about something you just said. Sorry, I I forgot.

[00:07:44]So as far for Yeah, I mean, when you fire the whole coaching staff, which quite honestly to me again, no knowledge outside looking in. When you fire that many people and a lot of good people. I know again, I'm biased. I know some of those guys. I worked with some of those guys. I think the think very highly of them and think some of them are doing a great job in their new places.

[00:08:07]You know, to me got I got the sense that if they won a couple more games that a lot of those guys would not be fired.

[00:08:13]And so, you know, what does that tell you if that's true is that there's other dynamics. There's emotion involved. It's just making change for change's sake a lot of times and maybe that's the manager. He didn't hire those coaches.

[00:08:26]So maybe it's that. I don't know. But yeah, I think that is the dynamic that often you see, which I think is unfortunate is all right, we're going to bullseye goes to the on the coaches' backs. Once you take care of that, it goes to the manager's back. And then if you did if you fire the manager, it goes to the GM's back. I mean, it seems to be this thing where you know, you fire a manager, it's like you you're a GM, you got like a year or two to kind of prove yourself or else you're next. So, I I do think a lot of this is related to the dynamics of how how the power structure works in baseball and a big issue being a lack of job security can lead to a lot of emotions or quick decisions, reactionary decisions.

[00:09:10]Okay, and then I remember what I was saying. You mentioned about control, right? As you get farther away, the the less control you have.

[00:09:17]Well, then isn't it isn't this a trend we've been seeing where GMs want managers they can control and they can tell what to do and they can say, hey, you've never you're just happy to be a big league manager and then I can tell you to make the lineup when to make pitching changes and when to do and I know every manager says, oh, I make the lineup and we just have meetings about it, but how much control then really does a GM have over their manager because I would feel like someone like Alex Cora would fight back a little bit, right? I feel like you know, the more tenured, longer in the tooth managers have a little more, hey, screw you. I want to do A, B and C and then if they bring in a new GM wasn't that didn't hire him, I Craig Breslow, then he says, "Alex, I want you to do A, B, and C you know, lineup construction." And Alex is like, "It's not going to work. We're like doing it this. We've been here longer." Wouldn't that be more of a control thing than just a in-house fighting thing?

[00:10:12]Well, yeah. I mean, if that's what's what's going on, that's a challenging dynamic, right? Like is if you seed things differently on how you're you know, using your players, you're putting them out there, whether it's the lineup or how you're managing your bullpen.

[00:10:26]Um if you're if you're seeing that very different from your manager, then that could Yeah, it could be a problem because if that keeps happening and you and you as a GM feel like, "Well, this is making our team worse."

[00:10:37]Then yeah, that's going to lead to butting heads and that might lead to a change, which I I think ties back to you know, hiring your own guy, right? Is like the idea is you're hiring someone that you feel alignment with or you feel that you're going to be on the same page. You never really know until you start working together, but you know, I can say I've never experienced um working with a manager where we were shoving things down their throat from the front office. Now, we were having conversations and I think at times they probably felt that way, but some of the narratives that are out there about making out lineups or you know, talking dissecting every little thing.

[00:11:16]You know, I think it's good to talk about some stuff uh occasionally because you want to understand their thinking.

[00:11:21]You're trying to learn about how they think through these things and maybe help. You like most us like I said at the top, we all want the same thing. We all want to win. So, uh the perspective that I always came from was how can I support the staff and help them. And that could be that we're providing them certain types of information that be be more useful for them. Will help them make decisions when the game's really fast, right? It could but you know, I think you got to be on the same page with that. And I think what I see in the game a lot is, you know, experience has become a little bit undervalued in a lot of areas of baseball.

[00:11:53]And I think part of that is not control. Maybe it is. I think it's more people want loyalty and alignment as quickly as possible. So, rather than, you know, have to kind of come at this from very different experiences and maybe disagree on a lot more that you have people that are kind of like we're going to be aligned from the beginning.

[00:12:16]And that'll make things a lot easier for us to to move forward.