4 trade deadline mistakes Billy Eppler must avoid at all costs

How New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler performs his job at this year’s trade deadline may go a long way toward costing him his job or providing a little more security. His worst moments as the general manager occurred at last year’s trade deadline. He wore a golden sombrero for all of the moves he made.

Eppler has shown he can learn from his mistakes. The Mets were less hesitant to promote the prospects this year in their time of need. Can he perform better at the trade deadline this time around?

It’s these four mistakes he’s going to need to avoid at all costs in order to stay or get into the good graces of Mets fans.

1) NY Mets trade deadline mistake to avoid: Don’t give up something better for something weaker

Why would someone actually trade away a better piece for something weaker? It’s exactly what happened with last year’s Darin Ruf deal with the San Francisco Giants. Some could argue J.D. Davis had worn out his welcome by the time the Mets made the swap. Even so, the trade is indefensible.

The Mets have overpaid at consecutive trade deadlines. Eppler wasn’t responsible in 2021 when they gave up Pete Crow-Armstrong for two months of Javier Baez and a year and a half of Trevor Williams. That’s a little more understandable except for the fact that the team didn’t do much more than bring in Baez to support the roster.

It may seem obvious. When you make a trade, your aim is to get better immediately. The Mets roster does have a couple of pieces we could see dealt from the MLB roster or upper minor leagues. Even if the trade ages poorly, the immediate effect needs to be a boost to the win column and not the sudden feeling that our general manager just got robbed.

Avoiding this mistake begins by trying every internal option possible before we get to the trade deadline. The Mets wasted too much time last year not letting any of the prospects play in the majors. Don’t let this happen again.