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

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.

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.