Three months ago, Andy Green had no aspirations of managing the New York Mets.<\/p>\n
Now, he’s got a three-year deal in the dugout to produce better days ahead.<\/p>\n
In a surprising change of direction, Green went from interim Mets manager to full-time skipper Tuesday when the club gave him a three-year contract. New York made the announcement before starting its final road trip of the season against the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Andy is the perfect person for this job,\u201d president of baseball operations David Stearns said at a pregame news conference in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Andy brings to us an ability to connect the organization in ways that very few people could. He allows us to connect front office to dugout. He allows us to connect minor league to major league, and he provides us a level of continuity that we need right now, and a level of stability and belief.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green, who managed the San Diego Padres from 2016-19, had been running New York’s farm system before taking over as interim manager when Carlos Mendoza was fired in late June. At the time, Green said he wasn’t particularly interested in becoming a manager again, citing the desire to keep spending time with his three daughters and saying he viewed his interim role on the bench as more of a responsibility to the club than a personal opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the outset, I wasn\u2019t even entertaining that idea whatsoever,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n
Stearns said Green would return to a front-office role after the season, a stance the executive stuck to even as the last-place Mets (72-85) improved their play on the field and several rookies who rose through the minors under Green such as Carson Benge and Nolan McLean flourished in the big leagues as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndy has connected with and pushed our players to perform, despite the disappointment of the season,\u201d Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen said in a statement. \u201cOver the last several months he has brought discipline, accountability and positivity to the clubhouse, attributes we were seeking in our next manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
And even as the struggling Mets unloaded a bevy of veteran pitchers leading up to the Aug. 3 trade deadline, Green found himself enjoying the steep challenges of his job on the bench and in the clubhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a tough time. It was trade deadline, we weren\u2019t necessarily winning baseball games. There was a lot of conversations that had to be had with players to help walk them through difficult chapters,” Green said. “And I started thinking, if I have such a passion for the hard times, I\u2019m looking forward to the good times.\u201d<\/p>\n
After he talked things over with his family, Green’s wife and teenage daughters encouraged him to pursue managing full-time again if the opportunity arose.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs time went on, it was just an overwhelming sense of joy and purpose being in the dugout and belief that something within me can help,\u201d Green said. \u201cSo it became pretty obvious as time went on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stearns said Green called him during the first week of September and let him know \u201chis passions had changed,\u201d and they were now in the dugout as manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that got my head spinning a little bit. I digested that over the course of the last couple of weeks. Andy and I have had a number of conversations,\u201d Stearns said.<\/p>\n
In the end, the Mets committed to Green and chose not to conduct a full search for a new manager this offseason as Stearns had said they would.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a wise decision, a good decision, and I\u2019m looking forward to the next couple of years,\u201d star shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “He\u2019s made a good impact in the clubhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of the season, it became evident that the next manager of the New York Mets was already in place,\u201d Stearns said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Coming into the season, the Mets had lofty expectations for a franchise without a World Series title since 1986. New York opened the season with baseball\u2019s highest payroll at $358 million and was projected to pay an additional $124 million in luxury tax.<\/p>\n
But the Mets underperformed early and were beset by injuries to Lindor, Juan Soto and others. They were 34-47 at the midpoint of the season when Mendoza was fired on June 26. The team is 38-38 since Green took over following Tuesday night’s 6-3 victory over Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last three months I think there\u2019s been progress,\u201d he said before the game. \u201cWe\u2019ve got more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 49-year-old Green, a former major league infielder, went 274-366 as Padres manager and finished with a losing record in all four seasons. Then he spent four seasons as a bench coach with the Chicago Cubs before joining the Mets in 2023 and serving as senior vice president of baseball development.<\/p>\n
Now, he becomes the 26th manager in franchise history.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly when I came down here three months ago, didn\u2019t anticipate this day at all. Wasn\u2019t anything that I was thinking could happen,” Green said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just an indication of where my family has pivoted over the last three months. They\u2019ve seen my passion rise and I think above anything else, it\u2019s right to acknowledge the players in that clubhouse because they\u2019ve rekindled in me a love that I had for being in the dugout.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three months ago, Andy Green had no aspirations of managing the New York Mets. Now, he’s got a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[11101,118,9,24,320,12,63,45312,122,124,123,319,27],"class_list":["post-355693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-app-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-mets","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-professional-baseball","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}