The NY Mets coach who should be feeling the heat most after the Carlos Mendoza firing

Carlos Mendoza doesn’t ride off into the sunset. He gets dragged out midway through year three with the New York Mets. It seemed as if the Mets were going to let him rot away for the remainder of 2026. Four losses at home to the Chicago Cubs was apparently the breaking point to fire him.

Following an offseason where nearly the entire coaching staff was dismissed, it always seemed inevitable that the Mets would move on from Mendoza unless they went as far as he took them in 2024. Not even close to achieving that, the decision to keep him around is one we’ll spend a long time debating.

In the meantime, the seats in the Mets dugout shouldn’t cool off. Several players, coaches, and executives should be worried about being next. No one should feel the heat more than Kai Correa who has been jumped over by Andy Green for the interim manager role.

Kai Correa seems out of the running to ever become the next Mets manager

Correa was brought in as a younger bench coach for the Mets and the heir to Mendoza’s job. Perceived to be as much of a baseball nerd as David Stearns, everyone was assuming he’d be the first replacement.

This week definitely wasn’t the time to do so. Correa’s reputation as a defensive guru hit rock bottom. Six errors in one game, all by infielders, completely erased the one major positive about the Correa hiring in the first place.

Just because Marcus Semien is having his worst defensive season since becoming a second baseman, Francisco Lindor made a flub in his return, and Mark Vientos is a DH who should never be allowed to touch a glove doesn’t mean Correa is a failure. Bo Bichette, who made an error himself, has been pretty good at third base. The Lindor error is one of several uncharacteristic ones made this season. Semien has no explanation and Correa has a fraction of the blame.

Mendoza was in a weird spot this year with the Mets. Now, so is Correa. He can certainly linger around and be someone else’s bench coach or slide into a different role if they value him. He just hasn’t gotten the results the Mets needed whether he actually is responsible or not.

The major Mets coaching turnover from the offseason might have the timid among us reluctant to make further changes. Getting trapped in a loop of constantly firing and hiring doesn’t do anyone any good.

But this is a bench coach spot. Managers have become increasingly less influential. As we’ve seen numerous times this year, Ron Darling’s tear down as a prime example, not even the skipper always has words that’ll stick.

We’re bound to see more major changes with the Mets roster and staff by the time “play ball!” is yelled on the next Opening Day. Will Correa have any involvement?

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