Billy Eppler's exit needs to be the end of Mets' front-office chaos
Mets general manager Billy Eppler during a spring training workout on Feb. 18 in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Billy Eppler wound up having a front-row seat at his own funeral Monday when the Mets introduced David Stearns as the franchise’s first-ever president of baseball operations.
Yes, that was Eppler in the VIP section, watching intently as Stearns and owner Steve Cohen, shoulder-to-shoulder, gushed about a new direction for the organization. Eppler — the pilot of the old direction — already was a spectator and had been for weeks, once Stearns agreed to come to the Mets, finally completing a three-year courtship by Cohen.
But before we could figure out where Eppler might fit into the Stearns regime, as the plan was supposed to go, the two-year GM abruptly resigned Thursday afternoon. It was a surprising turn of events, based on the Mets’ public stance regarding their front-office makeover.
For this franchise, however, there is rarely such a thing as a smooth transfer of power. In this case, Eppler bowed out due to a pending MLB investigation, a source confirmed Thursday night, with the New York Post reporting that it has to do with improper usage of the injured list. The Mets, of course, made no mention of those accusations in announcing Eppler’s resignation.
“I wanted David to have a clean slate and that meant me stepping down,” Eppler said Thursday in a statement. “I hope for nothing but the best for the entire Mets organization.”
Cohen characterized the move as being “in everyone’s best interests,” and yet Stearns said on Monday that he “looked forward to working with him.” Somewhere in between, an MLB probe apparently blew up that fledgling relationship, and Eppler chose to walk away rather than create any further chaos for the Stearns administration.
Only four days earlier, Cohen had Eppler do Stearns’ dirty work by firing Buck Showalter, giving him the option of going out on his own terms — albeit painfully, on the public stage — for Sunday’s season-finale at Citi Field. The Mets didn’t hang this year’s failures on Showalter, saying only that Stearns wanted to start fresh with his own guy.
It was Eppler’s final act as GM, and his resignation presumably closes the curtain on a turbulent five-year stretch for the Mets unmatched by any other team in the majors: two owners, five GMs (including Sandy Alderson’s fill-in cameos) and four managers. By our count, three of those GMs and two managers — Mickey Callaway and Carlos Beltran — were KO’d by inappropriate or illegal behavior, a stunning track record in such a short span.
There’s less turnover at your neighborhood Chipotle. And yet, the Mets still put together a 101-win season last year, which in hindsight is pretty remarkable, despite crumbling over the final month and getting upset by the Padres in the wild-card round. Eppler took plenty of heat for not securing impact players at the trade deadline, instead swapping for Daniel Vogelbach and Darin Ruf — two DHs light on the H — while crowing about keeping the Mets’ top 19 prospects.
That was a tough break for Eppler. Being tasked with protecting a future he probably knew he wasn’t going to be around to enjoy. And on top of that, Eppler was put in charge of this season’s fire sale, when the Mets officially waved the white flag at the deadline by trading two future Hall of Famers in Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander along with an All-Star closer in David Robertson.
His only two years in Flushing leave quite a legacy. Not doing enough to strengthen the Mets for the playoffs during that first season, and then surrendering any shot at October by gutting the roster the next. We’ll cut him a break on the back end of his Mets’ tenure, however, because few thought Cohen’s $377 million roster would turn out to be such a paper tiger. Not only that, Eppler deserves credit for somehow trading Scherzer, a 39-year-old, oft-injured pitcher we believed to be radioactive at the deadline, for a Rangers A-list prospect in Luisangel Acuna, the brother of Atlanta’s Ronald, the perennial MVP candidate.
Eppler coined his own phrase, “re-purposing,” to describe Cohen paying down contracts to deal the Mets’ high-priced stars, an effort to put a positive spin on punting a season with such huge expectations. It’s never a pleasant assignment for a GM to demolish what many figured to be a World Series contender, but Eppler did a decent job — with Cohen’s backing — to convince the angry mob this was the right way to proceed.
By title, Eppler was the head of baseball operations for the Mets during his two-year tenure, but Cohen, as the guy with the billions, loomed large over every decision, especially when it came to writing the big checks. As Cohen explained post-deadline this season: “I own the club, right? Don’t forget that.”
We’ll keep that in mind as Stearns takes over in Flushing. And his first order of business, if he’s truly setting the Mets on a new direction, is to stay out of MLB’s crosshairs.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
