Andy Green said he “didn’t expect” that he would take the reins as the Mets’ full-time manager, but over the last few weeks it became “more and more obvious” that his days with the interim tag next to his job title were numbered.
“Simply put, I think Andy’s the perfect person for this job,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said at a news conference announcing Green as the permanent manager on a three-year contract Tuesday in Texas, adding he is “thrilled we got to this day” and is “looking forward to parenting” with Green going forward.
“Certainly, when I came down here three months ago I didn’t anticipate this day at all,” Green said. “Wasn’t anything I was thinking could happen, but that does not take away from my level of excitement and passion that I’ve felt over the last three months with this group of guys.”
Green, who spent four seasons managing in San Diego, said he wasn't going to look to get back in the dugout full time until his two youngest daughters graduated from high school. With them as seniors this year, Green said the timing was right, and that his family has “pivoted over the last three months as they’ve seen my passion rise.”
But “above anything else,” Green acknowledged the players in the clubhouse for influencing his decision to take on the full-time role.
“They’ve rekindled in me a love I had for being in the dugout, and I’ve enjoyed believing in them, encouraging, and challenging them,” he said. “At times, holding them accountable and being a mirror for them, and seeing themselves for what they’re doing. I have been grateful for how they have responded
“Certainly know that we have not met the level of expectation of what we want to do in a win-loss capacity, but I am excited to go forward with that group. I have a ton of belief in that group and what we can do together and what we anticipate doing together.”
Green’s future with the club and if he would be a candidate for the managerial job was a topic just about every time Stearns spoke the last few weeks. And just about every time it was asked, the response from Stearns and Green was that he would be returning to the front office for the 2027 season. That changed with the manager calling the executive earlier this month.
“He gave me a call sometime in the first week of September, and wanted to let me know that his passions had changed a little bit,” Stearns said. “I think Andy was very careful to not assume anything, but he wanted me to know that if we wanted him to be a candidate, he was eager to do that. He was willing to serve the organization in whatever capacity we thought was best, but that his passion was in the dugout.”
Stearns admitted that call “got his head spinning a little bit,” but after digesting the change, there were a number of conversations leading to him giving his recommendation to ownership to go with Green.
For his part, Green said he started to feel that itch – what he later called "an overwhelming sense of joy and purpose" – in late July, which was a “tough time to start saying you’re feeling more passion for being in the dugout.”
“It was trade deadline time; we weren’t necessarily winning baseball games, there were 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’m looking forward to the good times.”
Green added that with August and moving forward with the new group after the deadline, it became “more and more clear,” and that once he reached the decision with his family, he made the call to Stearns.
Stearns said that the organization did "a significant amount of due diligence on external candidates" to uphold their "responsibility" to make sure they knew who else would be out there before Green put pen to paper on the contract, "but we never got to the point of interviewing an external candidate."
Green, who has a 37-38 record since he took over as interim following the firing of Carlos Mendoza, said he feels getting key pieces back from injury and the players have "gelled together and enjoyed playing together," which helped them play better baseball of late.
"This is a player-led business where they gotta take ownership of their careers and have the initiative to make this place great," Green said. "I think they've felt a transferring of that ownership and initiative. And I think they've risen up and played better baseball. Perfect baseball? No. And is there better baseball than we've played up 'til now? Yes.
But the newly minted skipper is "encouraged" by the way they have come together and "played with a better measure of freedom" since he came into the dugout.
"I think you see that on a pretty daily basis, so encouraged by those things," he continued. "We still have real strides to make to get to where we wanna go. We're very aware of that."
In making those strides for next season, Green told the clubhouse on Tuesday, after informing them of his new contract, that the "bright lights next year will reveal the work they did or didn't do in the shadows of the offseason."
"We have a lot of work to do on an individual basis," he said. "And each one of those guys is responsible for coming back as a better version of themselves and transferring that ownership to them was imperative to do, and it's why I'm so hungry to just get this announcement out of the way and move forward so we can have player meetings and talk to them individually about, 'Where's your next stride? Where's the next step? How do you get back to your best level of greatness?' And then try to set up an offseason where we're all collectively pushing in that direction.
"For me, there's a lot of work ahead. And the last three months there's been progress. Enough [progress]? No, we've got more to do."
Stearns added that he sees Green as having 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,” he said. “And a level of stability and belief that I think our players and our entire organization covet.”
And that his experience is a huge plus for the Mets heading into 2027.
“His experience throughout his career in this game, his experience in our organization over the last three years, our relationship that we’ve developed, and his ability to lead our clubhouse makes him the right choice,” Stearns said. “I’m thrilled that Andy has gotten to the point where this is the right choice for him and his family, as well. And I think we’re in very good hands in our dugout going forward.”
Stearns said that no decision had been made about the rest of the Mets coaching staff, and they would conduct a full review during the offseason, which is the organization's standard procedure.
