Carlos Mendoza Has To Go

The Mets are in free fall. Eleven straight losses. Worst record in baseball. A roster built with one of the biggest payrolls in the sport. And after last year's collapse, this was supposed to be the year the Mets came back angry, focused, and ready to win. Instead, they look lifeless, sloppy, and completely unable to stop the bleeding. The latest loss, a 2-1 extra-inning defeat to the Cubs, only added fuel to the fire after another questionable late-game decision and another wasted chance to end the skid. Is this all on Carlos Mendoza? Of course not. The roster construction, the underperforming bats, the bullpen failures, and the front office decisions all matter here. Even Mets officials have publicly defended Mendoza. But that's the reality of the manager's chair in New York: when a high-payroll team collapses two years in a row and opens the season 7-15, the manager becomes the face of the failure. Tonight, I'm getting into why Mendoza may not be the biggest reason the Mets are losing, but why he still might be the guy who has to go.