The Mets have a decision to make on Andy Green, and it is getting harder to treat him like a temporary fix. After taking over as interim manager at Citi Field on Sept. 5, 2026, Green has given the club enough steadiness that the case for keeping him beyond this season now feels real.
That search is active now because the season is winding down and Green’s role for next year is still unsettled. The Mets went 37-38 under him, a.493 winning percentage that is not the stuff of a dramatic turnaround, but it is a clear step away from the drift that marked much of the year. Green was handed the job with the understanding that he would move back into a front-office position when the season ended, yet Steve Cohen said last month that Green would be in the mix for the permanent role if he wanted it.
Sunday offered a small but telling snapshot of why Green has become part of that conversation. The Mets failed to play spoiler against the Phillies amid a gloomy, incessant drizzle, and a postponed Howie Rose retirement ceremony left the stands mostly empty. Green said the club wanted to show its respect to Rose, and he described the gesture as communal. “We would have loved to honor him with a win or a 300th homer today or something that would be fun to call,” Green said. “But we just wanted to show our respect.”
That kind of tone matters because the Mets have spent much of this season searching for order. Green inherited a gutted roster, a demoralized group and one of the toughest schedules down the stretch, then managed to make the club look more coherent without pretending the problems had vanished. He has also done it before, having once managed the Padres, which gives him a broader case than a stopgap label suggests.
The friction is obvious. Green was brought in expecting to return to the front office, and that expectation has not gone away just because the team has played better under him. Cohen added this past weekend on the SNY broadcast that he intended to add certain voices in the front office when evaluating talent, a reminder that the organizational picture is still moving around Green rather than settling behind him.
That leaves the Mets with a choice that can no longer be delayed by the calendar alone. If Green wants the job, the numbers, the steadiness and the respect he has earned point toward keeping him in the dugout. If he does not, the Mets will have to replace a manager who brought the season back to something closer to control.
