Mets Monday Morning GM: 5 worst moves and decisions Billy Eppler made

It was a relief when the New York Mets moved on from Brodie Van Wagenen and his predictability in the front office. We knew each of his former clients was fair game for the Mets even if they weren’t a roster fit. 

With Billy Eppler, it took some time for us to figure out his faults. Many of those same weaknesses from his time with the Los Angeles Angels turned out to be true. It didn’t matter if he had a high salary. Eppler’s shortcomings made them irrelevant.

Now that his tenure is over with, we can look back at exactly which moves or decisions he made that hurt the Mets most. The big problem with most of them is how much they repeated themselves. The man was too stubborn when it came to certain players.

5) Picking up the Carlos Carrasco option for 2023

Mets fans, for the most part, agreed this wasn't such an unwise move to make. Carlos Carrasco was effective in 2022 after all. Picking up his $14 million option for 2023 was at least a safety net if they missed in free agency at building a complete rotation.

Unfortunately, Cookie was left in the oven a little too long. His 2023 campaign somehow became worse than what he did in 2021.

Carrasco ended up with a 3-8 record this year and 6.80 ERA. This is the type of performance you pay zero dollars to acquire. His walks were up. His strikeouts were down. He gave up one more home run this year than he did in all of 2022 despite logging 62 fewer innings.

This is one of the bad Eppler decisions he won’t get wrung out for. Carrasco looked like a capable fifth starter heading into the year. That’s not how it went down as he ended up as a roster burden for his 20 starts where we never thought the Mets would have a chance to win.

4) Everything about the DH situation

We've only recently learned of how Daniel Vogelbach was essentially forced onto Buck Showalter (not literally). It was Eppler trying to save whatever he could from his 2022 trade deadline faux pas. Vogelbach was the only remaining piece from that disastrous stretch. Even after the trade deadline, Eppler felt the need to make sure he was the DH on a regular enough basis to cause Showalter some grief.

The Vogelbach trade was bad. Far worse was keeping him. Worst of all was not getting rid of him.

Vogelbach is one cog in this Eppler mistake, though. In the two years he was general manager, the DH was a disaster.

In 2022, it began with a mix of Dominic Smith, J.D. Davis, and Robinson Cano. Some of the regular position players mixed in there as well. When Smith started, he'd often grab a glove to play first base. It allowed Pete Alonso to DH and take a half-day. It was a good strategy.

Eppler quickly pivoted away from the plethora of DH options and decided a platoon with Vogelbach as the headliner made more sense. It was a quick fix in 2022. Throughout 2023, it exhausted Mets fans to see it continually implemented. The Mets should have leaned away from this same plan when they saw it not working this past season. Nope.

Every DH decision seemed to backfire. Something as simple as not trying out the hot-hitting prospects in the role everyday stained his reputation. This is the perfect segue to another constant mistake of Eppler’s. Does the guy even like the prospects?

2) The Omar Narvaez free agent signing

Will this go down as Eppler's worst free agent signing with the Mets? It depends on how you grade all of the factors. Omar Narvaez is more of a lock to end up as the most inconsequential signing under Eppler. Compared to Eduardo Escobar who gave the Mets something in 2022, the Max Scherzer addition that disappointed yet delivered more often than not, and the Starling Marte contract that's beginning to give off a smell the neighbors have noticed, this deal is the most inferior.

Narvaez hit .211/.283/.297 for the Mets in his 146 trips to the plate. He was injured for most of the year and by the time he did rejoin them from the IL, Francisco Alvarez had made his presence known as the unquestioned starter behind the plate. Where does this leave Narvaez? He got to take on the backup role while making starter money.

What makes this signing most frustrating is the player option for 2024. We can excuse one year. A mutual or team option for 2024 could've worked, too. Not today. This one is all up to Narvaez, yet another expensive free agent catcher who isn't cutting it in the lineup.

Did Eppler have this little faith in Francisco Alvarez? It would seem to be the case. You don’t offer Narvaez a chance to return in 2024 unless you believe Alvarez is going to take a while.

1) The Darin Ruf trade

Without question, the worst move of all made by Eppler is the 2022 Darin Ruf trade. It's what we may remember him for most aside from any major fallout from his handling of the IL. The Ruf trade wins unanimously as the biggest head scratching move of all by Eppler. Why not just keep J.D. Davis and limit his playing time or demote him? He had minor league options. 

Why give up three prospects for a struggling right handed hitter who'll be only slightly less limited than his platoon partner, Vogelbach? These are the questions we should ask the gatekeeper, whichever one it may be, when we die.

Martin Luther put together a list of 95 theses. Mets fans could easily top the list for reasons as to why this trade felt icky from the start. The spin was how well Ruf had hit lefties in the past. What’s so bad about the present?

Ruf didn’t hit a single home run for the Mets in any of his 74 chances. He was a putrid .152/.216/.197 hitter for the ball club. Most painful of all, he came days within making the 2023 Opening Day roster.

This trade is the Jason Bay signing for a whole new generation. It doesn’t even matter if the players the Mets gave up do nothing. The addition of Ruf and insistence on giving him a chance the following year alone make this one of those trades that’ll give a fan nightmares forever.