Every season brings about new challenges for the on-field generals known as the clubhouse manager. Many times, the man managing the on-field team will be the victim or scapegoat for an organizational failure. And the upcoming 2026 could feature three such contenders for the “Hot Seat Sweepstakes”.

DIS-HONORABLE MENTION: AARON BOONE (NEW YORK YANKEES)

Let’s begin with a dishonorable mention of Aaron Boone of the New York Yankees. Boone is entering his ninth season as the skipper in the Bronx. And the greatest level of success that Booney has achieved is his team’s absolutely abysmal performance in the 2024 World Series. And yes, Boone’s Yankees have reached the postseason in eight of nine seasons with him at the helm. One can also examine the boneheaded decision history employed by Boone and say that the Yankees have done well despite Aaron Boone, not because of him. Plus, add in the fact that the previous two Yankee managers (Joe Torre and Joe Girardi) were employed by the Yankees for eleven and ten years respectively, before their contracts were not renewed. Again, Boone is entering year number nine. And history could dictate the potential end this season if another fruitless season occurs.

MANAGER ON THE HOT SEAT #3: OLI MARMOL (ST. LOUIS CARDINALS)

The St. Louis Cardinals find themselves in an interesting predicament when it comes to their manager, Oli Marmol. St. Louis is going through somewhat of a rebuild and trading away some key assets from the organization. We’ve already seen the new GM for the Cards, Chaim Bloom, trade away Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras to the Boston Red Sox, and more recently, Nolan Arenado to the Arizona Diamondbacks. And by all accounts and reports, there are potentially more deals in the works. Then you also have to take into account that at season’s end, Oli’s contract with the Cardinals is up, which leaves a feeling that this season will be his last in St. Louis. But it goes beyond the contractual obligations. When examining the failure of 2025, despite clear indications that the team was already headed towards a rebuild, Marmol will likely become the face of this change, and his potential departure will loom as the first salvo of the new direction for one of baseball’s most historic franchises.

MANAGER ON THE HOT SEAT #2: KURT SUZUKI (LOS ANGELES ANGELS OF ANAHEIM)

For Kurt Suzuki, the newly minted manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the 2026 season is the potential beginning of the end of his managerial career. The Angels are one of, if not the most, confusing teams in Major League Baseball. It seems as if there is no plan or direction for this franchise. And that’s never been any clearer than the fact that they let Ron Washington go after his health issues pulled him away from the field and the game in 2025. Only to sign a new manager in Kurt Suzuki to only a one-year-deal. A big league manager in his last year is always in a precarious position, feeling like they have to navigate the most difficult of terrains without a compass or GPS. It would be like a boxer going into a championship prize fight with his dominant hand tied to his back and blindfolded against prime Mike Tyson. That’s the situation that Kurt Suzuki finds himself in for his first foray into Major League managing. There is little room for error for Suzuki with a team full of errors and questions, and the diminishing Hall of Famer, Mike Trout.

MANAGER ON THE HOT SEAT #1: CARLOS MENDOZA (NEW YORK METS)

Now the manager with the most heated seat in 2026 is Carlos Mendoza of the New York Mets. Mendoza finds himself dealing with an owner who’s a fan first and an owner second. Dealing with an owner who wants to win and is spending money like he’s turned off the budget in franchise mode on the video game MLB The Show. Yet, since purchasing the team in 2020 and setting a desired timeline of 3-5 years to win the World Series, Cohen’s Mets seem further away than when he started. Then add in another fan of the Mets who’s taken over as the President of Baseball Operations for the team ahead of the 2024 season in David Stearns, whose vision for the team is very different than his predecessors in Queens. Now, Stearns was the one who brought Mendoza into the Mets to be their new manager. And in that first season, the players responded well, with the Mets finishing fighting hard against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a six-game National League Championship Series in that first season of 2024.

Fast forward to the 2025 campaign, and the Mets were looked at as a heavy favorite to make the postseason. Why, you ask? Great question. That’s because in the offseason of 2024-2025, the New York Mets shocked and destroyed the baseball world by signing Juan Soto to a record breaking $765 Million contract over 15 years. This sent shockwaves that reverberated across the landscape of baseball as well as the sports world in general. But this was the kind of investment that, as an owner, you want to see immediate results from, and results that matter. A postseason return in 2025 was viewed as the least of the things that were intended to happen after this deal. And if the Mets got to game six of the NLCS with the eventual World Series-winning Dodgers, then now having one of the most general talents in the game added to the roster should mean that the Mets should be able to dethrone the Dodgers for the National League pennant. But that turned out not to be the case. The Mets were an unmitigated disaster in 2025, missing the postseason because of losing the season series to the Cincinnati Reds. And then, when you look now at this offseason, the team has been gutted and looks entirely different from the feel-good team of 2024 that made the improbable run to the playoffs. Faces that have become synonymous with the Mets franchise, like their franchise home run leader, Pete Alonso is now gone. Brandon Nimmo…gone, Jeff McNeil…gone. All that’s left is Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, and by all accounts, they don’t like each other. So Carlos Mendoza has to wrangle in all of the egos in what’s been reported to be a toxic clubhouse and get this team with the astronomical payroll that sits behind only the Dodgers back into a position of contention, or Carlos might not even make it to the end of the season. Oh, and by the way, Mendoza’s contract is also up at the end of the 2026 campaign. Carlos isn’t just managing the 2026 season for the Mets but for his own career. And that leaves him in the hottest seat of the 2026 season.