CHICAGO -- With his team on an eight-game skid, New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns backed his manager Carlos Mendoza on Friday, simply stating the team needs to play better. He's not looking to make wholesale changes.
"I think Mendy's [Mendoza] doing a really good job," Stearns said before the Mets played the Cubs on Friday afternoon. "I think he's putting our players in a position to succeed. He's enormously consistent."
Stearns pointed to a lack of offense that is making the Mets look "stagnant." New York ranks 28th in scoring, averaging just 3.4 runs per game.
"Urgency is not the problem here," Stearns said. "There's plenty of urgency. There's plenty of want, and sometimes that can lead to things like a higher chase rate, unfortunately."
The lack of offense has exacerbated an already tenuous situation as the Mets are navigating the losing streak without star Juan Soto, who is on the injured list with a calf injury. And any urgency they may possess hasn't led to stellar play on defense -- especially from shortstop Francisco Lindor, who has made several mental mistakes this month.
"They're uncharacteristic," Stearns said. "He's also a human being. And he's not perfect. No one is perfect. And so I don't have a reason for it other than we've caught a three-week stretch in his career where he's made some mistakes that he normally doesn't make. And I don't think we are going to see that consistently. I'd be very surprised that we see that consistently."
Soto should be back for the next homestand, but the team might be without DH Jorge Polanco after the veteran had an MRI on his right wrist Thursday. That's in addition to a leg injury he's been dealing with.
"We got multiple people taking a look at him," Mendoza said. "The foot is in a better place, but now he's dealing with a right wrist that is keeping him from the lineup today."
The injuries and the slump forced Mendoza to change his batting order Friday, moving Lindor down from the leadoff spot for the first time this season.
"I think with a lot of our left-handed hitters missing from the lineup, just trying to space them out now," Mendoza explained. Mendoza and Stearns are confident better days are ahead for the last place Mets who are already five games out of first place in the NL East. Stearns believes when the team picks up on offense, the narrative will change.
"We haven't hit," he said. "When you don't hit you can look stagnant. I don't think we're stagnant, I think we're playing hard."