3 major NY Mets roster changes Billy Eppler and Buck Showalter may be forced to make

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No MLB roster is perfect. If General Manager Billy Eppler has paid any attention to what fans have said about the New York Mets over the last few weeks, he’s fully aware of the problems his ball club has.

The Mets are by no stretch a bad team. Cruising into the playoffs is very possible even with the few faults they do have. This doesn’t mean Eppler can kick up his feet and watch things unfold. He needs to get an extended minutes plan on his phone and remain active in the trade market, within the waiver wire, and with the players already in the organization.

Based on what we’ve seen from the Mets so far, he may have no choice but to make these three roster changes with a little help from Buck Showalter who should have plenty of say. After all, it's the manager who should be the one to greenlight this first major Mets roster change. We already know Brett Baty is coming up on Monday so maybe at least one of these major changes will be in the books sooner than later.

1) NY Mets pitcher Carlos Carrasco could end up as a bullpen long-man prematurely

Even after a successful outing on Saturday against the last-place-everywhere Oakland Athletics, it has been a disappointing start to his season for Carlos Carrasco. After appearing to have something left in the tank with how he did last year, Cookie hasn’t looked so crisp in 2023.

Carrasco is coming off of a 15-7, 3.97 ERA campaign which provided us with plenty of hope he could do the same in 2023. It’s not trending in that direction. He has looked more like the outrageously bad 2021 version of himself.

For Carrasco, the next step isn’t getting designated for assignment. The Mets should, instead, look to move him to the bullpen if things aren’t working out.

There will come a point with this ball club where they may have to consider demoting a more useful starting pitcher than Carrasco. Tylor Megill and David Peterson are those two pitchers the team can think twice about sending to the minors if Carrasco isn’t performing. Depending on the health of the pitching staff, an opening in the bullpen for the long man role may be where Carrasco finds himself.

The Mets may want to act quickly. They cannot afford to keep running Carrasco out there to lose.

2) NY Mets shouldn’t hesitate to shop Eduardo Escobar and trade him in a perceived loss

Even if Eduardo Escobar goes on a tear, his time with this club looks just about over. An early slump at the start of 2023 gives us all too much déjà vu. He was unproductive for most of last season until the final weeks when he finally began to produce.

The Mets cannot wait around for him to crank up the production. Designating him for assignment is one possibility. The other is to eat a part of his contract and shop him in a trade.

When it looked like Eppler was going to sign Carlos Correa, trade rumors involving Escobar were in abundance. Many of us were guilty of thinking Escobar should stay put and become a good bench piece. It’s laughable now. If he’s not producing every day in the lineup, what’s to say he’ll have any value in fewer appearances? In our defense, this came prior to the team signing Tommy Pham. The thought of having Escobar as the right-handed platoon partner of Daniel Vogelbach was a big reason to want to keep him. Now he feels unnecessary.

Escobar won’t fetch the Mets much in a future trade. They would obviously replace him with Brett Baty, however, doing so at the moment would be difficult with no reasonable position player they can option to the minor leagues. Unless the Mets are willing to part with Tim Locastro, Escobar is going to stay in New York.

It’s a double-edged sword with him. The better he plays, the more we’ll accept him staying. The worse he does, the more we’ll want him gone but the less the Mets would get back. Clearing the roster spot may be the more important move to do even if Eppler feels like he lost the trade.

3) NY Mets should already have plans to improve the DH situation

Vogelbach against the righties and Pham or another one of the right-handed hitters against the lefties is not a perfect model for the DH spot. It’s a cost-effective plan but a limited one largely because Vogelbach doesn’t give the team much at all on the defensive side of things. The Mets don’t need a true masher in the DH spot. They just need a little more flexibility with the overall roster.

The presence of Vogelbach is one of the reasons why they couldn’t possibly carry Francisco Alvarez on the Opening Day roster. Having two first basemen and three catchers on your roster is bad news.

Eppler needs to remain open to other DH options. Anyone who could be more of an everyday player in this role would be ideal. Alternatively, not having any one individual as the automatic DH works as well.

The team doesn’t have to look very far to find those bats. Alvarez, Baty, and Mark Vientos are all fits to get at-bats as the designated hitter in the majors. Each has some questionable defense. At least they can do more than grab a first baseman’s mitt then say a prayer.

We’ve seen some ups and downs out of the DH spot already this year. The biggest beef with it is how it cannot be properly used for something like giving Starling Marte a full week to hit and not play defense. The issue all goes back to Eppler sticking with the platoon plan started last summer. He already had to eat the Darin Ruf mistake. Will he be forced into swallowing the rest?

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3 major Mets roster changes Billy Eppler and Buck Showalter may be forced to make

1) NY Mets pitcher Carlos Carrasco could end up as a bullpen long-man prematurely

2) NY Mets shouldn’t hesitate to shop Eduardo Escobar and trade him in a perceived loss

3) NY Mets should already have plans to improve the DH situation

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