There’s only one person who can save Mets’ Carlos Mendoza from getting fired | Klapisch

It’s been 34 years since John Harper and I wrote about the original “The Worst Team Money Could Buy” in 1992. Both of us have been hearing from fans on social media who are asking if the time is right for a sequel. It’s been a running question since 2024, but the similarities between the 2026 Mets and the 1992 ancestors are too eerie to ignore.

The short answer is: No, we’re not writing Volume Two. I cover the Yankees for NJ.com. And Harper, although closer to the Mets than I am, is busy on SNY.

The longer answer is that what made “The Worst Team” unique was that it took readers behind the curtain. Covering MLB was fun in the 1980s and 1990s. The clubhouse was a fascinating place where players weren’t afraid to speak their minds — pre-Twitter, pre-cell phones, pre-internet, pre-everything.

Mets, Carlos Mendoza

The tabloids (I was at the New York Daily News; Harper was at the New York Post) were the only way for fans to embed with Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry; Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter; Lenny Dykstra and Wally Backman. All that’s changed.

Today’s players are more cautious with the press. Most of the time, they’re hanging out, hiding in the clubhouse’s most restricted area, where the media are not allowed. One more thing: Yesteryear’s best stories were generated by the stars who loved the back-page headlines.

Today, with limited access and players taking to Instagram, baseball writing focuses on transactions, roster construction and analytics. Different world.

Those are the primary reasons why “The Worst Team” will never be reprised.

But if Harper and I did restart the engine, it would be to excoriate the 2026 Mets and its direct link to 1992. We’d start with Stearns, who is turning out to be as tone-deaf as then-general manager Al Harazin in ’92. Despite his Ivy League education, or maybe because of it, Stearns has made one miscalculation after another in assembling the roster.

He had no business trading Brandon Nimmo, at least not for Marcus Semien. Letting fan-favorite Pete Alonso walk was another red flag. Try telling me that any of his replacements have been an upgrade. Stearns has, up to this point, guessed wrong on Luke Weaver (6.23 ERA) and Devin Williams (7.11 ERA).

The biggest gamble has been on Mendoza, who was never Stearns’ first choice. That would’ve been Craig Counsell, who managed under Stearns in Milwaukee. They were supposed to reunite in Flushing, except Counsell bailed at the last moment to manage the Cubs. Stearns didn’t have a Plan B in place and hurriedly lured Mendoza away from the Yankees.

Mendoza was a fine bench coach in the Bronx, but he’s learning the hard way that a manager is only as good as his lieutenants in the clubhouse. Terry Collins had David Wright. Joe Torre had Derek Jeter. Aaron Boone has Aaron Judge.

Who does Mendoza have? Lindor has one RBI in 88 at-bats and Soto has been out most of the month. The two superstars barely speak. The Mets have no leaders, which means Mendoza is on his own in this crisis. He shouldn’t be surprised. Stearns fired all of Mendoza’s coaches over the winter, effectively turning Mendoza into a lame duck.

Players are not dumb. They sense when a manager has been weakened by the front office. The trickle-down effect has devastated the Mets, who’ve been outscored 62-10 over the 11 straight defeats. The damage may be irreparable.

The same disconnect took place under Jeff Torborg in ’92. He was an outsider who failed to inspire either Gooden or David Cone, Bobby Bonilla or Eddie Murray, or Frank Viola or John Franco.

Just like Harazin, Torborg had no clue about the cowboy culture that lingered from the ’80s clubs. His biggest mistake was allowing wives on the team charters and prohibiting alcohol. Dumb and dumber.

Not only did Harazin assemble the wrong players in ’92, but he also had the wrong guy in the manager’s office. Not surprisingly, the Mets lost 90 games in ’92 and 103 games in 1993.

The message Harper and I intended was found in the book’s title: Money guarantees nothing. The Mets’ $45 million payroll, MLB’s highest at the time, failed to buy the cohesion that winning teams thrive on.

Funny how history always repeats itself. Steve Cohen’s $375 million has bought him the worst team in baseball. Mendoza will be the first casualty when the owner has finally had enough. But he shouldn’t be the last.

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