Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 unfair criticisms of Billy Eppler

2) The NY Mets set themselves up for the wrath of fans by signing Gary Sanchez

The Mets struck gold with Gary Sanchez yet didn’t realize it. Having lingered without a contract for months, they signed him to a minor league deal and watched as he tore apart Triple-A pitchers. They even called him up to share catching duties with Francisco Alvarez. After just 3 games and 7 trips to the plate, the Mets decided to DFA him and activate Tomas Nido from the IL.

The ironic part is Nido ended up DFA’d himself not long after. This was a situation the Mets put themselves in where they couldn’t have possibly won. One could claim they should’ve DFA’d Nido first which is a fair point. But then they would’ve just done the same with Sanchez shortly after when Omar Narvaez was back.

Sanchez has been monstrous for the San Diego Padres since they added him but there was nothing to indicate he could do this as a member of the Mets. Carrying three catchers would’ve been their only option with one of the guys at the DH spot on a nightly basis.

This is a very hindsight driven criticism of Eppler. If Sanchez continued to struggle for the Mets, he’d have just as much wrath against him as Daniel Vogelbach. It’s unfair to say you want Alvarez on the MLB roster and believe Sanchez should’ve stayed. It’s most ridiculous because Sanchez probably never should have been signed by the Mets in the first place. There was never room for him and unfortunately, Eppler deserves some egg on his face for setting up this critique but not for the decision to quickly move on.