Jessica Mendoza is leaving her advisor role with the Mets to focus on an "expanded" role at ESPN, GM Brodie Van Wagenen announced Friday.
Mendoza signed a multi-year extension with ESPN, which includes a new role and assignments.
"We have enjoyed our relationship with Jessica and appreciated all her contributions and insight over the past year," Van Wagenen said in a statement. "We are excited for her expanded role at ESPN and fully understand and support her need to fully invest her time in all the new platforms. We have such respect and value her baseball insight and know her impact on the game of baseball is just beginning."
The Mets hired Mendoza as a baseball operations advisor last March 5, with her taking on that role in addition to her role at ESPN, where she had been working as a color analyst on Sunday Night Baseball.
In her role with the Mets, Mendoza provided insight to Van Wagenen and the entire baseball operations department, with her focus being on player evaluation, roster construction, technological advancement, and health and performance.
During her roughly year-long tenure with the Mets, the presence of Mendoza as someone with one foot in a baseball operations department and another in the baseball media world was often criticized, much like others -- including Pedro Martinez of the Red Sox -- have been criticized for the same kind of thing.
Mendoza came under fire recently for comments she made about Astros whistleblower Mike Fiers, who blew the lid off Houston's sign-stealing operation and set in motion three managers -- A.J. Hinch, Alex Cora, and Carlos Beltran -- losing their jobs.
After Mendoza received heat for those comments, Van Wagenen said she was speaking in a media capacity and not as a representative of the Mets organization.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday that he wasn't comfortable with Mendoza and others who work in multiple capacities that include front office work and media work.
"Let me give you a short answer on that one: No. I'm not all that comfortable with it," Manfred said, according to the New York Post. "I'm really not. But it's a topic that remains under discussion internally. As you know, it causes a lot of complications, not just on this particular incident or comments, but in general."
The 39-year-old Mendoza was an All-American softball player for Stanford, where she played from 1999-2002. Mendoza was also a member of Team USA Softball at the Summer Olympics in 2004 (taking home a gold medal) and 2008 (taking home a silver medal).