Andy Green did not want this job. Now he has it for three years.
The Mets removed the interim tag and signed Green, 49, to a three-year contract as full-time manager on Tuesday, according to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. Green took over from Carlos Mendoza in late June and went 37-38 the rest of the way.
He said it himself
“When I accepted the interim role, I didn’t anticipate it becoming permanent, but the more time I spent with our players and staff, the clearer it became that this is where my passion and experience could make the greatest impact,” Green said in a statement.
That is a refreshingly honest thing for a manager to admit in a press release. Most of them pretend they wanted the job all along.
A .493 record got him hired
On paper, 37-38 is nothing. The Mets are missing the playoffs and the season was a disappointment from April onward.
The internal case is the trend. New York was 31-28 since the All-Star break entering Tuesday night’s game in Texas, which means Green’s group kept competing after the season was mathematically cooked. Clubhouses that quit in August do not post winning records in September.
Owners Steve and Alex Cohen made that the entire rationale.
“Andy has connected with and pushed our players to perform, despite the disappointment of the season,” the Cohens said in a statement.
Green has been here before
He previously managed the Padres, where he learned what it looks like to run a team in the middle of a long rebuild. That experience is probably more relevant to this Mets roster than anyone in Queens wants to admit.
Tuesday was a rough day otherwise
The Mets placed right-hander Christian Scott, 27, on the 15-day injured list with left knee inflammation, ending his season. Scott last pitched Sept. 19 against Philadelphia and gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Closer Devin Williams was activated in the corresponding move, which is the one piece of good news.
The offseason is the real test
New York has decisions coming. Clay Holmes holds a $12 million player option and is considered a near-lock to hit free agency. The Mets signed him to a three-year, $38 million deal going into 2025, converted him from reliever to starter, and watched him post a 3.29 ERA over 251 2/3 innings before trading him to the Cubs at this year’s deadline.
That experiment worked, and it worked somewhere else by August.
Green now has a three-year runway and an owner with unlimited money and finite patience. The Cohens have already fired two managers. Green’s honesty about not wanting the job may end up being the most useful thing he brings to it, because this is an organization that badly needs someone willing to say true things out loud.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.