Mets manager Carlos Mendoza spent 15 YEARS with the Yankees… but is now desperate to bring success to the other side of New York – and he knows he must win QUICK to keep his job

The New York Mets have been here before. But they hope Carlos Mendoza can take them to places they haven’t seen in a long, long time.

The 44-year-old Venezuelan is the fourth consecutive Mets head coaching appointment who has previously spent time in the Bronx. He is also the fourth of the last five to have had his first opportunity to manage a major league club.

But none have yet been able to transport the Yankees’ success across the East River, and the results have been as homogeneous as the CVs, for a franchise whose title drought is now approaching its fifth decade.

For Mendoza, however, he has additional motivation to succeed after an entire career waiting for an opportunity. His playing career consisted of 14 minor league seasons as a utility infielder with the Yankees, San Francisco Giants and in independent baseball, culminating in a brief stint in Triple-A before hanging up his glove at age 29 and make your way through the Yankees training setup.

He rose from the rookie level to his first big opportunity as a major league infield coach in 2018 and became a bench coach two years later.

And in his debut on the bench he only has one goal.

‘Where do I want to be? I want to hold that trophy!’ says Mendoza. ‘That’s what we’re here for, that’s what we’re preparing for, that’s what we’re going to fight for, we know we have a way to go.

‘Everyone pursues the same goal and that’s why we are here. “My goal is to win a championship.”

Mendoza’s new team has been excited about him since he got the job late last year.

Long before the doors opened to the Mets’ spring training camp in Port St Lucie, he had made sure to get to know his players and implement their style.

“He’s not a strict type of guy, he’s more of a player type of guy,” says Adam Ottavino, who worked with Mendoza for two seasons with the Yankees.

‘But at the same time he wants us to help each other, to build a good community here, to share information and help each other, to hold each other accountable. “He entrusts us with the club’s headquarters, but at the same time his door is always open.”

It was a clubhouse in need of a renovation, following a disastrous 2023 season in which the most expensive team in baseball history finished 75-87 and spelled the end for Buck Showalter.

Mendoza is very much the flip side of Showalter, both physically (broad shoulders and a 6-foot build) and philosophically, as he takes advantage of an opportunity 15 years in the making.

But can one man really turn last year’s misery into a club ready to challenge for a championship? Only five coaches have ever lifted a World Series in their rookie season. And in an NL East division paired with two powerhouses in Atlanta and Philadelphia, and all the firepower in the West, even making the playoffs will be more than enough for a rookie captain to keep going.

“Well, it’s New York,” Mendoza says, “and expectations are always high: you have to win.”

“Look, it’s not a secret, last year was a difficult season for this team.

“They went through a lot of things, whether it’s injuries and other things, but it’s a new beginning, we have a really good team and we know that expectations here are always high.”

“I don’t believe in the fact that outside projections have the Mets on the low end; I don’t believe in that.”

“I know we are good, the players know we are good and we have business to attend to.”