“Freaking pathetic!” - Ex-Mets pitcher rips into Carlos Mendoza’s “embarrassing” bullpen strategy

Former New York Mets pitcher Adam Ottavino unleashed his fury on manager Carlos Mendoza, who used MLB record 46 pitchers during the 2025 season. The Mets' bullpen was plagued with several injuries, including Tylor Megill, Dedniel Nunez, Danny Young, Frankie Montas and Reed Garrett.

The Mets relievers started the season well, posting a 1.70 ERA over the first 12 games. However, their plans derailed and went on to post a 3.93 ERA for the season, including several blown games.

Ottavino directly blamed Mendoza for such a state of the Mets' bullpen, which played a big role in the club losing its spot in the postseason. During his “Baseball & Coffee” podcast on Wednesday, Ottavino was critical of the mismanagement of injuries within the group.

“This is embarrassing, this is actually pathetic, like pathetic. I would’ve never let this happen if I was on the team last year,” he said. “At least half of these guys wouldn’t have blown out. I would have protected these dudes myself; I would have had to jump in front of them myself.

“Unfortunately, there was nobody willing to stand up and talk to Carlos (Mendoza) this year; it was just me, I guess. So a little bit of an issue there.”

Ottavino is not a fan of how the Mets didn't think enough to preserve the arms of their bullpen pitchers. The Mets were third in MLB in terms of innings pitched by the relievers (636.0), showing how heavily the bullpen was taxed.

“And if they continue down this path, they’re gonna be f–k-e-d, because you cannot injure this many dudes every year,” Ottavino said. “Hopefully, this is not an actual strategy because it’s freakin’ pathetic and it’s not player-friendly, and eventually people will catch on."

Adam Ottavino claims Mets' staff has no idea on how to handle injuries

Adam Ottavino pinned the blame on the Mets' injury staff, claiming they have no "player education" to keep players healthy." He suggested that the staff put "pressure on a lot of guys" to play even when they don't feel 100%.

Continuing with his blame on the manager, Ottavino believes Mendoza doesn't care about what's going on with a particular pitcher.

“| think he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to bullpen guys and how to keep them healthy or even how to care about them at all," Ottavino added. "There’s no communication there, there’s no feel there, there’s no bedside manner when guys get hurt.”

The Mets bullpen also faced the challenge of failing starters as both Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga, who were thought to be aces, failed and were often taken out too early by Mendoza. As such, the bullpen took a massive load on themselves and as a result, there were so many injuries.