NY Mets Monday Morning GM: The 3 baseball crimes of Billy Eppler

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Billy Eppler was placed on the ineligible list through the 2024 season. The reason stems mostly from his misuse of the IL. We all observed how conveniently New York Mets players would get hurt last year to open up a roster spot. But it’s not just them committing this crime. It’s an open secret how fugazi this punishment is.

A handful of players I spoke to about MLB's investigation into Eppler agreed "every team does it" – as in, fabricates injuries – and they were both interested and confused as to why the league was only scrutinizing one team's GM. https://t.co/v7O1kVJaZX
— Deesha (@DeeshaThosar) February 9, 2024

Are the Mets being targeted? Does MLB need to do something to fix this problem? Sports have some weird rules about roster construction. A healthy scratch system like the NHL has could help rectify the phantom IL stints somewhat. However, there’s always going to be someone to bend the rules in their favor much like Eppler apparently did.

Let’s not work on fixing the game we all love right now. Instead, let’s take Billy Eppler to trial and charge him with three counts of baseball crimes against the Mets.

3) Billy Eppler is guilty of arson on the DH

This crime has a lasting effect on the Mets. The last two months of 2023 was the time to figure out the future at the DH spot, or at least whether or not Mark Vientos was the right choice. The Mets successfully got him into games at third base for a large part of August while Brett Baty attempted to get his swing in order down in Triple-A. When Baty returned to the majors, Vientos continued at third base while also getting a few more starts at the DH spot.

It was handled much better in those final weeks although a little too much Daniel Vogelbach (any Daniel Vogelbach was too much, frankly) did take away some of those much-needed at-bats from the kids. Eppler’s real crime stems back to the previous season when he continually committed arson on the DH spot as a whole.

The long-running true crime drama of the 2022 season was focused on who the DH for the Mets would be. The planned rotation of players such as Robinson Cano, J.D. Davis, and Dominic Smith at the start of the season only got worse after the trade deadline. But more on that later. It’s connected to another major crime of Eppler.

2) Billy Eppler is guilty of negligence at the catcher spot in 2023

It’s not discussed enough how much the Mets had no clue what they were doing at the catcher spot in 2023. Whether Francisco Alvarez was ready or not at the start of the season can be debated. A little more seasoning in Triple-A would’ve helped but an injury to Omar Narvaez forced him to the majors a little faster than expected. He clearly was ready, but this isn’t the negligent baseball crime Eppler committed. It’s everything else.

The Mets signed Tomas Nido to a modest extension before the year began only to DFA him a few months later. Nido managed to pass through waivers and ride out the rest of the year in the minor leagues after hitting .125 for the MLB club in 22 games. The $1.6 million he made in 2023 and the $2.1 million he’ll earn in 2024 won’t have Steve Cohen buying off-brand medication. It just comes across poorly.

Furthermore, the Mets signed Narvaez to a deal with a player option for the 2024 season. Signing him in the first place was okay because the thought was Alvarez wouldn’t be ready in 2023. But with Nido signed to an extension as well, there was already little wiggle room for the Mets to ever get their prized catching prospect to the majors. Someone dropped the ball on evaluating Alvarez’s readiness.

Finally, there was the whole Gary Sanchez situation. Remember him on the 2023 Mets? He’d play in only three games and pick up a single hit. He was DFA’d then signed by the San Diego Padres where he put up some good numbers. The Mets ended up having to DFA two catchers in a short period of time only to add Narvaez back from the injured list to go on and be an overpriced backup. Worst of all, Narvaez picked up his option for 2024 and now the team will look to dump him in a trade only to promote Nido back to the majors.

What a mess this was. Thankfully, Alvarez stood out and helped this crime of negligence go a little more unnoticed.

1) Billy Eppler is guilty of assault on the 2022 playoff run

Outside of the Mets world, Eppler will probably be remembered as the general manager who got caught mishandling “injured players.” Within our Mets community, we’ll remember him most for the 2022 assault on the 2022 playoff run.

The Mets had a real chance to win it all in 2022. Finishing in a tie with the Atlanta Braves for the NL East crown stung, but it wasn’t the worst case scenario. All they had to do was get past a San Diego Padres team at home in a short series.

Eppler didn’t have a good showing at the trade deadline. While many of those moved performed poorly with their new clubs (Vogelbach has some of the best numbers), it was specifically the choice to pair Darin Ruf with Vogey that led to this becoming a baseball crime. Three prospects and a right-handed equivalent to Ruf all for him? Wake me from this nightmare.

In this instance, Eppler committed a heist against himself. To make matters worse, Ruf was one of the final cuts at spring training in 2023. The other underwhelming players added at the trade deadline, Tyler Naquin and Mychal Givens, were already long gone by this point. Only Vogelbach remained and he’d go on to somehow make it through the entire 2023 campaign despite obvious warning signs ahead of time. Tack on some time to his sentence for sticking with Vogelbach.

Eppler’s greatest baseball crime against the Mets was his assault on the potential 2022 playoff run. An issue that runs so much deeper and includes the reluctance to promote hot-hitting prospects, he’s almost lucky we’ll remember him for this more than a silly placement on the ineligible list for doing something every other team does.

Although baseball criminal acts were committed against the Mets, he did successfully reload the farm system before leaving. His Chris Bassitt trade was highway robbery. He used Steve Cohen's money well at times and got the free agents the team needed. We measure a general manager on the team's success or failure. Unfortunately, any of the good he did will be forgotten because of how far below expectations the team finished in his two years.

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