The Mets tabbed Andy Green as interim manager after firing Carlos Mendoza on Friday morning. The 48-year-old Green is back in the dugout for the first time in seven years, but it’s not serving as an audition for the full-time role.
President of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters that Green will return to the front office at the end of the season (relayed by Chelsea Janes of SNY). New York will do a full managerial search at the beginning of the offseason. Green has spent the past two and a half years as the team’s senior vice president of player development.
Green spent almost four years managing the Padres between 2016-19. San Diego lost 90+ games in each of the first three seasons. They were on track for a fourth when they fired Green with a little more than a week remaining in 2019. He spent the next few seasons as a bench coach with the Cubs but was let go after the ’23 campaign when Chicago went from David Ross to Craig Counsell. Green interviewed for a few managerial openings, including the Mets position that went to Mendoza, before moving into the front office. He reportedly rebuffed interest in managerial opportunities last offseason.
Green has begun his interim managerial tenure with an 0-1 record. As has too frequently been the case this year, the Mets couldn’t generate any offense against Zack Wheeler or the Philadelphia bullpen. They dropped their first game under Green by a 2-1 margin. It’s their seventh straight defeat, moving them to a season-worst 14 games under .500. Only the Rockies and Giants have a worse record in the National League.
Stearns is under contract through 2028. It’s generally believed that he has the support of owner Steve Cohen and will be entrusted with the next managerial search. It’s far too early to have an idea of what the Mets will prioritize.
Mendoza, hired a couple months after Cohen tabbed Stearns to run baseball operations, was a first-time hire who’d spent the previous four seasons working as Aaron Boone’s bench coach in the Bronx. He’s the only full-time managerial hire of Stearns’ career, as Counsell was already in place with Milwaukee before the Brewers hired Stearns as GM over the 2015-16 offseason.
Future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols has made no secret of his desire to manage and has already thrown his hat into the ring. “I’d love to get the opportunity,” he said in an MLB Network appearance this afternoon. “Who doesn’t want to take that job, especially with the history in that town?” Pujols has no MLB managerial experience but has managed in the Dominican Winter League and led his home country in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, where he managed Juan Soto. Pujols was a reported finalist for the Padres job that went to Craig Stammen and was initially viewed as the leading candidate for the Angels vacancy before talks with owner Arte Moreno broke down.
