Mets Supervisor Carlos Mendoza Addresses Rumors of Clubhouse Conflicts

ORLANDO, Fla. — New York Mets supervisor Carlos Mendoza disputed current studies of clubhouse points final season, together with a rift between Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, calling them a “lie” and “improper” throughout a information convention at MLB’s winter conferences Monday.

“It is spectacular that no person talked about our clubhouse and within the final two weeks what we hear is that we have been mainly preventing daily when it is fully opposite to the fact,” Mendoza stated in Spanish. “It is a skilled clubhouse the place the fellows revered one another, the place the fellows got here to work and to compete day in and time out.”

Final month, the New York Submit reported that Lindor had sturdy phrases for second baseman Jeff McNeil after a late-inning defensive mistake in opposition to the Philadelphia Phillies on June 20. The incident, confirmed by sources to ESPN, occurred in entrance of teammates within the clubhouse and spawned stress.

The Mets dropped that sport in Philadelphia 10-2 for his or her seventh straight loss. The skid was the start of a 3½-month collapse that plummeted the Mets from the perfect document in baseball to out of the postseason image regardless of fielding the second-most costly roster within the majors.

“What was the distinction? We did not win baseball video games,” Mendoza stated. “No one talked about our clubhouse for the primary 2½ months of the season once we had the perfect document. No one talked in regards to the clubhouse. Two and a half months of unhealthy baseball occurred, and so now everyone seems to be speaking in regards to the issues. It is fully a lie. But it surely’s a part of the market. It is a part of what we dwell with in New York.”

Mendoza additionally addressed criticism former Mets reliever Adam Ottavino lately levied at him on his “Baseball & Espresso” podcast. Ottavino, who made 60 aid appearances for the 2024 Mets below Mendoza, decried the Mets’ spate of accidents to pitchers, saying Mendoza “has no concept what he is doing on the subject of bullpen guys and how one can hold them wholesome and even how one can care about them in any respect.”

Mets relievers ranked third in innings pitched final season. Relievers Reed Garrett, Danny Younger, Max Kranick and Dedniel Nunez have been among the many pitchers misplaced for the season due to arm accidents. The workload, Mendoza famous, was the product of Mets starters’ incapacity to pitch deep into video games; Mets starters completed twenty seventh in baseball in innings pitched. However Mendoza, who led the Mets to the Nationwide League Championship Sequence as a rookie supervisor in 2024, insisted he was cautious with reliever utilization.

“The information are proper there,” Mendoza stated. “We have been most likely one of many groups that protected the bullpen guys higher than anyone. And also you’re speaking about we have been ready to try this with so little size that we have been getting from the starters. I do not suppose this can be a Mets challenge. I believe that is an business [issue]. This yr, we have been coping with loads of accidents. However like I stated, I am comfy with the method, too.”

Bolstering the bullpen was a precedence for the Mets coming into the offseason. The membership lately addressed the aid corps by signing Devin Williams to a three-year, $51 million deal. Williams will both shut video games or function a setup man ought to the Mets re-sign Edwin Diaz. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns on Monday stated different wants embrace a beginning pitcher and an outfielder, although he insisted the door has not closed on a possible reunion with first baseman Pete Alonso.

“As I’ve stated all alongside, he is an awesome Met,” Stearns stated. “We might like to have him again.”