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

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.