3 ways Billy Eppler muffed the DH spot in the lineup

3) The Mets should have avoided needing to have two DHs in the first place

Bigger than finding an alternative to Ruf, the Mets should have taken aim at finding an everyday DH or at least someone that isn’t limited to platoon duties. Rather than make the appropriate trades, the Mets decided to hold onto their top prospects. We can credit them for not getting steamrolled at the trade deadline in this regard. However, there’s no telling what the team will be able to do next year. Jacob deGrom could be gone. Max Scherzer is another year older. The Mets want to win often and for long. The mistake was not successfully adding a player they could do that with for multiple years.

It’s easy to second-guess now. With the season winding down and a whole year of DH troubles, critiquing the Mets in this era comes with plenty of ease.

A DH platoon never seemed like such a superb idea especially with two players limited on defense. Vogelbach is a first baseman—a position filled by an All-Star slugger. Ruf can play first base and some corner outfield. It’s not quite enough and has already limited the Mets defensively at times.

A better strategy would have been to simply add in the best hitter they could even if the position was already occupied. There’s nothing wrong with giving all of your starters occasional starts at the DH spot. Because the Mets did what they chose to do, this hasn’t been a regular option.

As poorly as he has done with the Padres, Josh Bell might have been the better choice even at a high asking price. Admittedly, we’d all be roasting Eppler for choosing wrong but at least there’d be receipts online where we did at one point like the move.

In the case of what they have done at every turn, every receipt reflects poorly on how they muffed up the DH role.