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The Mets' president of baseball operations, David Stearns, expressed confidence in manager Carlos Mendoza amid an 11-game losing streak. The team was swept by the Cubs, marking their longest losing streak since 2004.
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CHICAGO â Shortly after the Mets arrived in Chicago in the midst of a long losing streak, president of baseball operations David Stearns gave a vote of confidence to his embattled manager, Carlos Mendoza.
âI think Mendy is doing a good job,â Stearns said Friday in the Wrigley Field dugout. âI think Mendy is putting players in positions to succeed, and we need to go out and play better.â
The Mets have yet to play better. They were swept by the Chicago Cubs over the weekend, extending their losing streak to 11 games. Itâs the longest such streak for the Mets since 2004, and if they lose the next game, scheduled for Tuesday night at Citi Field, theyâll match their 2002 streak.
Itâs fair to question the job the manager is doing during a losing streak, which is why Mendoza all but expected to have to face it Sunday afternoon, after the Mets lost 2-1 to the Cubs in 10 innings.
âI know questions like this are going to come up, but Iâm spending my energy on continuing to manage,â Mendoza said. âContinue to lead, continue to coach, continue to support. Thatâs what Iâm doing right now â spending my energy on the things that I can control.â
It does not appear that Mendoza has lost the clubhouse.
âMendy is our guy,â said shortstop Francisco Lindor, a key clubhouse leader. âHeâs our leader. Heâs in control, and heâs done a tremendous job. We just havenât executed.â
Closer Devin Williams seemed almost offended that he was asked about the management of the third-year skipper. When asked about Mendoza, the right-hander was emphatic in his message: This is not the managerâs fault.
âHe doesnât swing a bat and he doesnât throw a baseball,â Williams said. âWeâve been in a lot of these games. Theyâve been close. I mean, him or somebody else is not affecting that.â
Mendoza can only do so much with the roster built by Stearns and the front office. The roster isnât going to change drastically anytime soon, so if you ask the guys in the clubhouse, another voice isnât going to get any more out of the team than Mendozaâs.
âIf weâre not getting the job done, somebody else isnât going to just magically flip a switch and weâre going to get it done,â Williams said. âHeâs putting guys in good positions. Weâre not performing.â
Carlos Mendoza is under scrutiny as the Mets have lost 11 consecutive games, prompting questions about his management during this challenging period.
The Mets are currently on an 11-game losing streak, the longest for the team since 2004.
David Stearns stated that he believes Mendoza is doing a good job and is putting players in positions to succeed despite the team's struggles.
If the Mets lose their next game, they will match their losing streak from 2002.

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Williams could have an issue with how heâs being used, but that doesnât seem to be the case. Without a natural place to slot him in, Williams has pitched only twice in the last week, and had eight days of rest before pitching Wednesday in a loss to the Dodgers. The results havenât been great: In seven games this season, he has a 7.11 ERA with two saves and one blown save.
Still, Williams isnât entertaining any arguments about his usage.
âMy job is to be there, be prepared and finish games when they get me the ball,â he said. âI didnât do that today.â
In todayâs game, many in-game decisions arenât even dictated by the manager, though itâs generally believed that Mendoza has a fair amount of autonomy in the dugout. Every decision is going to be scrutinized in New York, win or lose, regardless of who is making them.
The decision to have Craig Kimbrel pitch to Nico Hoerner in the 10th, instead of walking him to set up a double play, could have been made by the analytics team. Or, it could have been made by a manager who canât trust his middle infielders to turn one right now.
If they had walked Hoerner and the next hitter, Michael Busch, it would have loaded the bases and set up a force-out at home. The Mets havenât been adept at those plays this season.
Ultimately, this seems to fall on Stearns. Heâs the architect of the roster coached and managed by his handpicked staff. In his third season running the baseball operations department, he has effectively put his stamp on the team, doing so without emotion or an attachment to players of teams past.
Now, the Mets are playing in a similar fashion â without emotion, or Grimace, or OMG, or anything remotely fun. The Mets arenât supposed to be this buttoned up and corporate, yet the team on the field is playing like a group of co-workers who barely know each other and canât wait for their next Teams meeting to end.
Fans are losing their emotional attachment. Why would they want to show up for games when this is the product on the field? Where is the entertainment value? Who are the heroes theyâre supposed to root for?
There is no lack of talent, but the Mets are lacking quite a bit. Theyâre lacking an identity and chemistry on the field. The manager canât provide those attributes; he can only help the team find them on their own.
âItâs all of us,â said left-hander David Peterson. âWeâre in this together. Everyone has a part in this, and weâve got to stick together. Everyone has to take responsibility and accountability. We all need to look in the mirror and see what we can do better to help this team move in the right direction.â