Any New York Mets fan watching the New York Yankees take on the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALWCS felt a familiar feeling in the top of the seventh inning. Yankees ace Max Fried had been more or less dealing, with six shutout innings turned in up to that point.

Fried wasn’t flawless, but he had worked out of any jams with relative ease and had the Yankees in a position to win, staked to a narrow 1-0 lead. He entered the seventh at 99 pitches, almost reaching both magical thresholds, six innings and 100 pitches that have become conventional wisdom to pull a starter. However, with the lefty Jarren Duran due up first, Boone left Fried in the game to take advantage of the lefty-on-lefty matchup.

Fried would retire Durran on three pitches, reaching 102 total. That was enough for Boone, who brought in righty Luke Weaver from the pen with the right-handed Ceddanne Rafaela coming to the plate. Weaver would promptly cough up the lead, getting tagged for two earned runs, leading to the Yankees’ ultimate demise.

Mets fans saw shades of Carlos Mendoza in Aaron Boone’s quick hook

This felt all too familiar to Mets fans who became accustomed to Mendoza pulling a dealing starter for a struggling reliever, seemingly based solely on conventional wisdom like pitch count, innings limits, or platoon matchups, regardless if the particular situation dictates that to be the right decision.

With Mendoza confirmed to return in 2026, despite the second-half collapse, it’s a habit Mets fans hope he’ll break. If the must-win season finale is any indication, he won’t.

Here’s the thing about Boone’s decision to yank Fried when he did: the numbers show it was obviously the wrong call. While Rafaela bats from the right side and Fried is a southpaw,

Despite hitting right-handed, Ceddanne, who is better known for his glove than his bat, has a reverse platoon split, hitting .220/.265/.413 against lefties versus a .260/.306/.414 line against righties. Fried, too, has been better against righties than lefties, posting a .295 wOBA versus same-handed hitters as opposed to a .266 mark against right-handed bats.

Then there’s the reliever aspect of it all. Luke Weaver, at points, has looked brilliant, but posted a 9.64 ERA in September and had clearly been struggling. As Mets fans know all too well, Mendoza loves to turn over the game to a struggling middle reliever when sticking with the starter is clearly the superior play.

Mendoza has had his fair share of defenders come out of the woodwork to excuse his bullpen management, but they’ve all been pretty weak arguments when looked at logically.

David Stearns has stated the Mets’ focus this offseason will be on run prevention. While that is a smart play, there are two key takeaways. One, acquiring a true ace like Fried, something Stearns has been reticent to do, goes a long way toward keeping runs off the board. So too does effectively managing the pieces one has, and that is an area in which Carlos Mendoza has often fallen short.

A turnaround from Mendoza in this regard would go a long way to solve the problem, though Stearns making a big play for a frontline starter would also help just as much. Hopefully, these two can take some lessons from Max Fried and Aaron Boone and carry them through the offseason and into 2026. But don’t hold your breath.