Carlos Mendoza did not win NL Manager of the Year, but the Mets still won with Mendoza.
The Mets rookie manager was named a finalist for the award after helping the Mets improve by 14 wins in 2024, coming in third place in voting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association.
Milwaukee Brewers skipper Pat Murphy won the award, becoming the first manager from his club to do so. San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt came in second. Murphy received 27 first-place votes and three second for a total of 144 points and was the only manager named on every ballot. Shildt got one first-place vote, 19 second-place and eight third for 70 points, while Mendoza totaled 35 points with one first-place vote, six second-place votes and 12 third-place votes.
The results of the voting were announced Tuesday night on MLB Network with Mendoza’s predecessor, Buck Showalter, sitting in as one of the commentators for the broadcast. Showalter won the award in 2022.
After years of organizational instability and constant turnover, the club recently announced that it would bring back its entire coaching staff for the 2025 season. It’s a sign of progress for the Mets and it shows how well everyone worked with the coach at the very top of the org chart. In his first season in Queens, he took the Mets to the brink of a pennant, as the team came just two wins shy of reaching the World Series. Ultimately, they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the eventual World Series winners.
The Mets went 75-87 in 2023, missing the playoffs one year after reaching the Wild Card round. Mendoza helped them go 89-73 in the regular season in 2024. A former bench coach in the Bronx for Aaron Boone, Mendoza was lauded for his communication and openness with the team. A native of Venezuela who will be 45 next week, his bilingual abilities were an asset, and the front office liked that he was collaborative. He could deliver the information handed down to the clubhouse in a way that the players respected.
With his coaches, he was always on the same page. Mendoza relied on insight from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and bench coach John Gibbons. The trio worked well together, but Mendoza wasn’t afraid to go against the group and make his own decisions. It’s his right as the manager and the coaching staff respected that right, knowing he would take accountability if the decision was wrong.
Mendoza knew that if he took accountability, it would help foster a culture of it. He often stressed that players needed to feel free to show their personalities and team leaders Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and Francisco Alvarez helped implement that philosophy. The Mets have worked to create an environment where players aren’t afraid to come forward with injuries and Mendoza helped further that.
Showalter joked that the winner of the award should be “careful.” The veteran skipper was popular in the clubhouse, with players angry over the way he was ousted last fall. There is little job security in professional sports these days and loyalty gets cast aside for “business” reasons. Murphy was a college coach for 21 years before moving into the professional ranks and didn’t get a managerial job until he was 65, and when he finally did, he inherited a team that had massively cut payroll.
All of that is to say that it’s a volatile job in a volatile business, but the Mets seem to be in a better place than they have in a long time. That bodes well for Mendoza, who can continue to grow as a manager as the Mets grow as well.
