Mets general manager Billy Eppler has resigned from his position, according to a press release from the team. Mets owner Steve Cohen said that Eppler “led this team through a 101-win season and postseason berth last year and he will be missed. We accepted Billy’s resignation today as he decided it is in everyone’s best interest to fully hand over the leadership of Baseball Operations to David Stearns. On behalf of the Mets organization, we wish him all the best.”
Eppler himself issued a comment in the release, saying “I wanted David to have a clean slate and that meant me stepping down. I hope for nothing but the best for the entire Mets organization.”
Given how Stearns’ first few weeks have seen the Mets cut ties with manager Buck Showalter and make some other personnel changes within the front office, it doesn’t seem shocking on paper that Eppler is also on the way out. That said, Eppler had been expected to continue as GM and serve as Stearns’ top lieutenant, making today’s news “a major surprise” in the view of SNY’s Andy Martino.
Eppler was hired by the Mets in November 2021, signed to a four-year contract with the hopes of bringing stability to a front office that had become a revolving door. Sandy Alderson stepped away from the GM position in July 2018 due to a battle with cancer, with John Ricco, J.P. Ricciardi, Omar Minaya handling matters on an interim basis until Brodie Van Wagenen was hired a few months later as the new general manager. Van Wagenen’s tenure lasted for a little more than two years (until Cohen bought the team), and incoming GM Jared Porter lasted only six weeks before being being fired due to reports of a past incident of sexual harassment. Zack Scott then became interim GM but lasted less than a year, as a DWI charge led the Mets to ultimately part ways.
Even with the lockout interrupting much of the 2021-22 offseason, the Mets still spent big both before and after the transactions freeze, with some of Eppler’s biggest strikes happening in the few weeks between his hiring and the early-December shutdown. That winter saw the Mets bring Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha, and Chris Bassitt into the fold, while also hiring Showalter as the new manager. The result was a 101-61 record, the second-highest win total in the Mets’ franchise history. However, New York still had to settle for a wild card slot after losing the NL East crown to the Braves on a tiebreaker, and the Mets’ playoff run quickly ended with a three-game loss to the Padres in the NL Wild Card Series.
With Cohen sparing no expense on player payroll, Eppler kept the big moves coming last winter, bringing both new faces (Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana, and more) to Queens on pricey free agent deals, re-signing Mets staples Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo, and even extending other regulars like Jeff McNeil. The result was an Opening Day payroll of over $330MM — far and away the biggest in baseball history, with a record luxury tax hit to match.
Unfortunately for the Mets and their fans, the large payroll meant an equally large disappointment when the team simply failed to get on track. With injuries playing a factor, New York finished only 75-87, resulting in a midseason pivot that saw Scherzer, Verlander, Canha, Escobar, Tommy Pham, Dominic Leone, and David Robertson all dealt to both save a bit of money, but primarily to add some new young talent to the organization.
“One of the goals here is to expedite the longer-term goal. We’re trying to restock and reload the farm system,” Eppler told reporters at the trade deadline. “You have to go through a little pain to get where we want to go, but I feel like the organization is making strides towards a better future…..Going into 2024 we don’t see ourselves having the same odds that we did in 2022 and 2023, but we will field a competitive team.”
More to come…
