The New York Mets were the best team in baseball two months into the regular season. By its final day, they were on the outside looking in at the NL playoff picture.
Although the Mets are retaining manager Carlos Mendoza, his coaching staff will look significantly different in 2026.
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The Mets announced Friday that pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez, and third-base coach Mike Sarbaugh will not return. Additionally, bench coach John Gibbons has resigned, and catching coach Glenn Sherlock has retired, per the organization.
First-base coach Antoan Richardson, strategy coach Danny Barnes and coaching assistant Rafael Fernandez will be back next season.
The Mets also announced that assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel and bullpen coach José Rosado have permission to speak to other teams, “pending the selection of a new pitching coach.”
The Mets started the 2025 season 45-24 before posting a dismal 38-55 record in their final 93 games, slumping to an 83-79 finish that left them in a distant second place in the NL East and out of the playoff field just one season removed from their encouraging run to the NLCS.
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Mendoza is the first Mets manager to make it to his third season since Terry Collins, whose seven-season tenure spanned from 2011 to ’17 and included the club’s first World Series appearance in 15 years. After it initially looked like a magical playoff run from last season was carrying over beautifully to this season, the Mets cratered, struggling in run prevention and finishing 18th in team ERA.
President of baseball operations David Stearns called the season “tremendously disappointing,” but he said he remains confident in Mendoza.
“Carlos has all the same traits and assets that I believed in when we hired him two years ago,” Stearns said Monday, per The Athletic. “Over the course of his tenure here, he has demonstrated that. I still believe he’s a very good manager.”
Mendoza has compiled a record of 172-152 during his two seasons in New York.
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