Billy Eppler committed three baseball offenses while he was a member of the Mets that had nothing to do with the injured list.
Billy Eppler’s eligibility was revoked for the 2024–2025 season. His abuse of the IL is the main cause of the problem. All of us saw how the New York Mets would opportunistically sustain injuries to clear out a spot on the roster last season. But they are not the only ones carrying out this crime. The fugazi nature of this punishment is well known.
Are people aiming at the Mets? Does MLB need to take any action to address this issue? Strange rules apply to roster construction in sports. The NHL’s robust scratch system may be able to partially address the issue of phantom IL stints. But someone will always find a way to twist the law to their advantage, just as Eppler reportedly did.
Let’s not spend our time trying to fix the beloved game at this time. Rather, let’s prosecute Billy Eppler on three charges of baseball crimes against the Mets.
3) Billy Eppler is responsible for the DH arson.
The Mets are affected by this crime in the long run. The final two months of 2023 were dedicated to determining the future at the DH location, or at the very least, if Mark Vientos was the proper decision. For the most of August, the Mets were able to insert him into games at third base while Brett Baty was at Triple-A trying to get his swing in order. Vientos stayed at third base after Baty rejoined the majors, earning a few more starts at designated hitter.
Though, to be honest, a little too much Daniel Vogelbach (any Daniel Vogelbach was too much) did take away from the kids some much-needed at-bats, it was managed much better in those last weeks. The real crime that Eppler perpetrated was arson on the DH spot on a regular basis during the previous season.
The 2022 season’s long-running true crime story was centered around the potential DH for the Mets. After the trade deadline, the starting rotation of guys like Robinson Cano, J.D. Davis, and Dominic Smith at the beginning of the season only grew worse. Later on, though, more on it. It’s related to Eppler’s other significant crime.
2) Billy Eppler committed carelessness in 2023 at the catcher’s position.
The extent to which the Mets in 2023 were clueless about what to do at the catcher position is a topic that gets little attention. One could argue Francisco Alvarez wasn’t ready when the season began. A little more Triple-A experience would have been beneficial, but Omar Narvaez’s injury sent him to the majors a little earlier than anticipated. It’s obvious that he was prepared, but this isn’t the careless baseball crime that Eppler did. It’s all of the rest.
Before the season started, the Mets signed Tomas Nido to a short contract, but then DFA’d him a few months later. Nido hit.125 for the MLB club in 22 games, but he was able to make it past waivers and spend the remainder of the season in the minor leagues. Steve Cohen won’t be purchasing generic drugs with his $2.1 million in 2024 and the $1.6 million he made in 2023. It just sounds bad.
In addition, Narvaez inked a contract with the Mets that included a player option for the 2024 year. Since it was anticipated that Alvarez wouldn’t be ready in 2023, it was acceptable to sign him in the first place. However, Nido’s contract extension left very little room for the Mets to ever bring their highly-coveted catching prospect to the majors. Someone neglected to assess Alvarez’s preparedness.
And lastly, the entire Gary Sanchez predicament. Do you recall him from the 2023 Mets? He would only get one hit in his three games of action. After being DFA’d, he signed with the San Diego Padres and made some impressive stats. After having to DFA two catchers in quick succession, the Mets were able to add Narvaez back from the injured list, but he was still an expensive backup. The worst part is that Narvaez chose to exercise his option for 2024, thus the team will now want to trade him away in order to bring Nido back to the majors.
This was such a mess. Fortunately, Alvarez made a statement and made this careless crime less noticeable.
Billy Eppler committed an assault during the 2022 postseason.
Eppler’s legacy outside of the Mets will likely be as the general manager who was exposed for mismanaging “injured players.” He will be most remembered in our Mets community for his 2022 postseason run assault.
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 played a heist against himself in this case. Ruf was among the final cuts at spring training in 2023, which made things worse. By this time, Tyler Naquin and Mychal Givens, the other disappointing players acquired at the trade deadline, had already left. Vogelbach was the last one left, and he managed to survive the entire 2023 campaign in spite of clear warning indicators before to it. Add a little period to his punishment for continuing to follow Vogelbach.
Eppler’s attack on the possible 2022 postseason run was his worst baseball crime against the Mets. He’s almost fortunate that we will remember him for this rather than a foolish ineligible list placement for doing something that every other team does, as the problem goes far deeper and involves a reluctance to promote hot-hitting prospects.
Before departing, he did manage to replenish the farm system, despite baseball illegal crimes against the Mets. Highway robbery was his trade, for Chris Bassitt. He occasionally made good use of Steve Cohen’s money to acquire the free agents the squad required. A general manager is evaluated based on how well or poorly the club performs. Regretfully, the team’s dismal performance over his two years will cause whatever positive impact he had to be forgotten.