Mets GM Gives Manager Vote Of Confidence, But That’s Not Mendoza’s Biggest Worry

Mets GM Gives Manager Vote Of Confidence, But That’s Not Mendoza’s Biggest Worry

As the New York Mets early-season woes continue, it’s hard not to feel sorry for manager Carlos Mendoza. He had his coaching staff fired as soon as last season ended, his team can’t hit, and they’re currently mired in a ten-game losing streak.

Even worse, Mendoza is on an expiring contract, and he just got the dreaded vote of confidence from GM David Stearns, who seems to be watching a different team these days.

"I think Mendy's [Mendoza] doing a really good job," Stearns said on Friday before the opening loss of the Cubs series in a piece written by Jesse Rogers of ESPN. "I think he's putting our players in a position to succeed. He's enormously consistent."

Consistency is great when you’re winning, and it can help .500 teams that run hot and cold. But the Mets aren’t that right now. They’re a bad team that can’t hit, makes mistakes in the field, and consistently wastes good starts.

Stearns at least pointed to the right problem, which is the Mets offense. New York is scoring just 3.4 runs a game, which ranks 28th in the league, according to Rogers.

"Urgency is not the problem here," Stearns said. "There's plenty of urgency. There's plenty of want, and sometimes that can lead to things like a higher chase rate, unfortunately."

The chase rate is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Mets offense, though. It’s one thing to chase, but that’s very different from the abundance of non-competitive at-bats the Mets have been offering up lately. Those kinds of at-bats are rally killers, which is one big reason the Mets can’t score.

Moreover, the player who should be leading the Mets out of this is Francisco Lindor, but he’s leading the team in mental errors so far this year. Lindor typically wants to make highlight plays, and he checks out from time to time on the ordinary ones a lot these days.