Did we have a Billy Eppler Era? Not quite two years since becoming GM [1]; can’t say they weren’t eventful. Lots of high-profile free agents, which had a lot to do with the owner’s wherewithal to spend, but somebody had to do the hands-on negotiating. Handful of trades that didn’t pan out, then a slew of future-leaning swaps that look good in down-the-road terms, but that’s necessarily TBD. Whatever went on in the way of organization-building, which is never apparent to the layperson until somebody writes a story telling us what was built was just what was needed or clearly not enough. Not an excessive amount of public paeans to “culture” that I can recall, which was refreshing. One season making the playoffs. One season nowhere near them. Mysterious exit late one afternoon that grew a little less mysterious as that afternoon’s evening wore on.
Eppler said on Thursday he was leaving the Mets so David Stearns could have a “clean slate” in creating the Mets in his own president of baseball operations image, which seemed a little curious at first report, in that dating back to midsummer, Steve Cohen indicated Eppler would be around under any POBO to be named, giving him far weightier a vote of confidence than he gave Buck Showalter. Confidence in Showalter evaporated by Sunday, but at Stearns’s introductory press conference on Monday [2], David gave Billy what sounded like a unconditional endorsement, or at least didn’t euphemize too hard when asked about his predecessor continuing on in a different/diminished role.
Take ancient precedent with grains of salt, but when reigning Met GMs Joe McDonald and Jim Duquette were informed they would soon be reporting to newly named successors (McDonald to Frank Cashen in 1980, Duquette to Omar Minaya in 2005), those arrangements didn’t last long, and the former GMs each soon moved on from the organization for posts elsewhere. Although Stearns was hailed in advance as a superexecutive the brilliant likes of which we’ve never before seen, I thought there has to be some level of discomfort for Eppler being told he was no longer the lead non-Cohen decisionmaker in these parts. But if all concerned were on board, so be it. I’d already spent more time than I cared to this week trying to remember the names of Mets general managers since 2018.
Within hours of his graceful resignation [3], we learned via multiple outlets that Eppler is apparently under investigation [4] by MLB for improper use of the injured list, which seems unfair, given that the Mets looked sick all of 2023, so maybe there weren’t enough of them sent to a doctor. It probably means guys who weren’t injured were put on the injured list to ease roster logjams. The Mets always seemed to have a roster logjam and somebody always seemed to be going on the IL to make way for the next fringe character.
But I’m just speculating, not only about this investigation business, but any of it. When we watch a game, and we see somebody strike out, we can say what we saw and perhaps articulate a legitimate opinion of why what just happened happened. “He swung at the pitch and didn’t hit it because he swings at pitches he can’t hit.” Discerning front office machinations without first-hand knowledge or access to an informed source willing to whisper in our ear that, for example, it was Eppler and not Showalter who insisted Daniel Vogelbach was exactly the kind of DH this team needed [5] in its lineup most days amounts to guessing while trying to sound intelligent.
So I don’t know any more than anybody else about what all went on beyond the surface in the Billy Eppler Era. I’m not even sure if there was a Billy Eppler Era. Eras in Flushing tend to be fleeting.