3 trade deadline moves that prove Billy Eppler knows what he's doing

The New York Mets had quite a roller coaster of events with their roster in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline that passed on August 2. Billy Eppler was one of the busiest general managers across the sport in the deadline season, acquiring several players to attempt to bolster the team ahead of a playoff run in October.

But as crazy as the Mets were for not picking up the most obvious need (a left-handed relief pitcher), the Mets just continued to win, win, and win, and Billy Eppler deserves a lot of credit for some of the moves he made, and didn't make.

1) Daniel Vogelbach has been both a media darling and a hitting darling for the Mets for a month. 

The Mets desperately needed a left-handed power hitter who could come off the bench or servee as a designated hitter, and the Mets made the first move of the deadline season by picking up Daniel Vogelbach from the Pirates in exchange for Colin Holderman on July 22. 

The Mets were disappointed in Dom Smith’s performance this year and they knew they had to make a change, and Smith was sent to the minors after he recovered from injury a few weeks ago. In comes Vogelbach, who owns one of the shortest, most compact swings in the game, and can run for a big guy. 

Since going over to the Mets in the trade, Vogelbach turned his season around, as he is batting .286 with 10 extra base hits, a .425 on-base percentage and a .939 OPS. 

As a result, Pete Alonso’s bat got hot, and the overall feel of the offense felt different. The team’s 17-3 stretch from July 24 to August 14 coincided with Vogelbach’s Mets debut. 

Also, remember the gloom and doom the pundits threw at the fanbase because the Mets gave up a (rookie) reliever who had a 2.04 ERA with the Mets to get Vogelbach? Yeah. Me neither. Billy Eppler knew what the Mets needed. 

2) Michael Perez has given the Mets much-needed catching depth. 

The Mets had a solid catcher duo for their pitching and defense with James McCann and Tomas Nido going into the season, but there really wasn’t much depth behind them for 2022. Chances were Francisco Alvarez needed to see Triple-A pitching to develop into the franchise catcher the Mets hope for him to be, and Patrick Mazeika (whom the Giants added off waivers yesterday) wasn’t going to bring much, especially at the plate. 

So when James McCann was still down due to an oblique injury, the Mets needed another catcher in case something wrong happened with McCann or Nido, so Billy Eppler brought in Michael Perez from the Pirates on July 23 in exchange for cash considerations. 

And what happened? Tomas Nido was placed on the COVID-19 list, forcing Michael Perez into action. And what has he done? He has two multi-run scoring hits in wins against the Phillies over the weekend, and has caught three runners stealing bases out of five attempts behind the plate. 

Perez had to catch on three straight days because of both Nido’s absence and James McCann not ready to catch back-to-back games following his injury, and he stepped up, much to the delight of Chris Bassitt.