Eppler Resigns

[Benjamin Grimm]

But he seemed to be okay with it. Maybe he found out that his role would be smaller than he thought it would be. Or maybe it's this IL thing. Maybe we'll find out. And maybe we won't.

[metsmarathon]

i like to think that on strearns' first day on the job he called in billy eppler for his one-on-one intro meeting, and it satarted off like, "have you noticed what the braves are doing in atlanta? explain to me why you hadn't locked up pete alonso yet?"

and that was that.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

i like to think that on strearns' first day on the job he called in billy eppler for his one-on-one intro meeting, and it satarted off like, "have you noticed what the braves are doing in atlanta? explain to me why you hadn't locked up pete Alonso yet? Did you notice that Alonso just hired Scott Boras, which will make things more difficult?"

and that was that.

I added one thing I think might be key.

[ashie62]

I might guess that Eppler was "asked" to resign

Eppler kinda looks like he was incompetent on some level and did play well with others

I do feel badly now about Buck leaving knowing this know

[metsmarathon]

i like to think that on strearns' first day on the job he called in billy eppler for his one-on-one intro meeting, and it satarted off like, "have you noticed what the braves are doing in atlanta? explain to me why you hadn't locked up pete Alonso yet? Did you notice that Alonso just hired Scott Boras, which will make things more difficult?"

and that was that.

I added one thing I think might be key.

well, yes. it was implied, but i should have stated it explicitly.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Seems like if Eppler was going to stay on, this IL investigation changed that pretty quickly. MLBTR speculates a penalty of fines or suspensions if the Mets are found to have violated rules. That would suck if we lose healthy player(s) in '24 for any length of time to serve suspensions for gaming the system. THANKS BILLY.

[Frayed Knot]

i like to think that on strearns' first day on the job he called in billy eppler for his one-on-one intro meeting, and it satarted off like, "have you noticed what the braves are doing in atlanta? explain to me why you hadn't locked up pete alonso yet?"

and that was that.

Of course Eppler could counter with, 'Have YOU noticed that they're doing quite nicely after NOT resigning Freddie?'

[MFS62]

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=6524AA15

tough crowd.
Later

[metsmarathon]

i like to think that on strearns' first day on the job he called in billy eppler for his one-on-one intro meeting, and it satarted off like, "have you noticed what the braves are doing in atlanta? explain to me why you hadn't locked up pete alonso yet?"

and that was that.

Of course Eppler could counter with, 'Have YOU noticed that they're doing quite nicely after NOT resigning Freddie?'

bah. don't ruin my fun with your inconvenient facts.

[Gwreck]

Of course Eppler could counter with, 'Have YOU noticed that they're doing quite nicely after NOT resigning Freddie?'

If there’s a Matt Olson-quality player out there available to replace Pete Alonso, I’d certainly entertain the idea. Who exactly that would be is not clear in this hypothetical.

[Frayed Knot]

Of course it's hypothetical and I'm not advocating for Not signing Pete, particularly since you need depth in the minors to pull off that kind of move.
Merely pointing out that there's always more than one way to skin a cat and, if one is going to point to Atlanta as a model to emulate, they've done quite well by not chasing even their own FAs into their 30s, Freddie and Swanson recently but also going back to the days of Andruw Jones and Raffy Furcal plus others in between.

[Edgy MD]

Of course Eppler could counter with, 'Have YOU noticed that they're doing quite nicely after NOT resigning Freddie?'

If there’s a Matt Olson-quality player out there available to replace Pete Alonso, I’d certainly entertain the idea. Who exactly that would be is not clear in this hypothetical.

There's always somebody. Who will perform like Matt Olson in 2024 and beyond is an open question, but somebody will. Vladdy Guerrero,Jr.? Josh Naylor? Matt Vientos? And somebody may even be more likely to perform like Matt Olson than Pete Alonso is likely to perform like Freddie Freeman. Or like Pete Alonso.

It's certainly unclear, as the future always is. But that's where the smart folks find their edge.

[Gwreck]

if one is going to point to Atlanta as a model to emulate, they've done quite well by not chasing even their own FAs into their 30s, Freddie and Swanson recently.

They have done well recently. The production they’ve had from Olson is remarkably similar to what Freddie has put up for a team winning just as many games as Atlanta. The Braves probably got the better deal in the end (Olson is 4.5 years younger, but they had to give up a bunch of prospects) but it’s still too early to make that call.

I didn’t point to Atlanta as a “model to emulate.” Not that I necessarily disagree with it, but it’s fair that they’ve been blessed with a a certain amount of luck in players having a willingness to sign arguably below-market value contracts versus testing free agency.

[MFS62]

I didn’t point to Atlanta as a “model to emulate.” Not that I necessarily disagree with it, but it’s fair that they’ve been blessed with a a certain amount of luck in players having a willingness to sign arguably below-market value contracts versus testing free agency.

Here's more about how they do it.(original Yahoo sports content)
https://sports.yahoo.com/how-the-braves ... p_catchall

Later

[Frayed Knot]

I didn’t point to Atlanta as a “model to emulate.”

That was in response to mm's post which certainly implied it.

Not that I necessarily disagree with it, but it’s fair that they’ve been blessed with a a certain amount of luck in players having a willingness to sign arguably below-market value contracts versus testing free agency.

That's because their players have a knack for arriving as top players practically from Day One [Acuna, Albies, Harris, Strider] (and, again, going back to Andruw) even while barely out of their teens and despite barely setting foot in AA or AAA) and so the players are agreeing to sign L-T contracts not on the verge of FA-gency but 3 or 4 years earlier (A. Riley) or even 5 or 6.

Could the Mets have done this with Pete after his rookie year? Sure, but that was pre-Eppler so not really relevant here.

[Edgy MD]

It was also pre-Cohen.

Pre-COVID too.

Not pre-Madonna, though.

[Edgy MD]

Also bailing a day or two before was the Mets director of amateur scouting, Marc Traumata. Marc had been with the Mets since 2012, and will become special assistant of player personnel for the Blue Jays, an organization he was with before coming to New York.

[A Boy Named Seo]

I've been thinking about what's next for Eppler and it feels a little bleak. Like, who's the next team that's gonna go, "Eppler, definitely Billy Eppler." It seems like weathering the storm with the Mets over this IL investigation would've been the safest move for him, so it must not have been an option, right?

[smg58]

In Eppler's defense, he did a few things right. He brought in Senga and Quintana to be third and fourth starters on a winning team, and Quintana's injury aside, they did what they were hired to do. Pham was a good pickup too. But the bullpen was way too top-heavy given the team's payroll and the depth that teams need to have in today's game, and when the #1 guy got lost for the season, it was left horribly exposed. I think the Scherzer trade was good for the Mets and the Verlander trade was bad. So, basically, mixed grades. And while I do think Eppler was an improvement over his immediate predecessors in the job, the bottom line is he was handed the largest budget in the history of the league by a wide margin and had 75 wins to show for it. You can't do that and expect to keep your job.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Verlander trade may turn out to be a good one. Drew Gilbert is considered a very good prospect.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

In Eppler's defense, he did a few things right. He brought in Senga and Quintana to be third and fourth starters on a winning team, and Quintana's injury aside, they did what they were hired to do. Pham was a good pickup too. But the bullpen was way too top-heavy given the team's payroll and the depth that teams need to have in today's game, and when the #1 guy got lost for the season, it was left horribly exposed. I think the Scherzer trade was good for the Mets and the Verlander trade was bad. So, basically, mixed grades. And while I do think Eppler was an improvement over his immediate predecessors in the job, the bottom line is he was handed the largest budget in the history of the league by a wide margin and had 75 wins to show for it. You can't do that and expect to keep your job.

I mostly agree -- and many of his moves were good ones. He gets hammered for the 2022 deadline deals, but I wonder how much he was hampered by a directive to not trade any of the better prospects. The guys on the Mets Pod who follow the minors closely rave about the guys we got from the Astros. Rotation and bullpen depth certainly sunk the team.

[Edgy MD]

I would ask where he departed philosophically from the mainstream.

If you have the biggest budget ever, why sink so much of it into starting pitching in an era when — between caution and injury — starting pitchers get an ever-decreasing opportunity to impact the game? If you're unwilling to depart from the prevalent thinking, you can be minimizing the advantage of a large budget, rather than maximizing it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, I had mixed feelings about the Scherzer and Verlander signings. $43 million a year for pitchers in the vicinity of their 40th birthdays. I'd say that money could have gone elsewhere, but the Mets weren't exactly on a tight budget.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be a much better get, if they can close that deal. (I expect that they will.)

[roger_that]

when the #1 guy got lost for the season, it was left horribly exposed.

Hey, come on. It was perfectly reasonable for the Jets to depend on having Aaron Rodgers all season!

[A Boy Named Seo]

The Mets will in be hamstrung by both the ghosts of Scherzer and Verlander next year, too (and maybe for taxation purposes $17.5M more for Verlander in '25). If they wanna emulate the Dodgers, then they'll run up payrolls, eat and shit out the taxes, then dip back down under the threshold to reset the clock and go again. Per Tim Britton, they have about $56M tied up to players they're paying to play elsewhere in '24. That's a quarter of the way to the luxury threshold ($237M) on just those dudes and we still gotta do something with Pete and sign other baseball players. Billy Eppler, man!

Britton piece -> https://theathletic.com/4951603/2023/10 ... fseason-2/