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I Wouldn’t Be Able To Sleep At Night If I Were Billy Eppler

Billy Eppler
I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I were Billy Eppler. The Mets blew it at the 2022 MLB Trade Deadline and it probably cost them a title.(Photo by Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

I Wouldn’t Be Able To Sleep At Night If I Were Billy Eppler

I couldn’t look my fanbase in the mirror today I were Billy Eppler. I don’t know how he will possibly sleep at night right now. There is not an executive in baseball that should be under a bigger microscope down the stretch than the Mets general manager. If the Mets don’t win the World Series this year, Owner Steve Cohen should eventually come to the conclusion that his team had a shot to win the title this year and his general manager acted like a spineless coward.

The pressure is on Billy. Of course, other teams are all in too but this Mets situation is different. They literally created a Steve Cohen rule. The Mets have a payroll the sport has never seen before. There is no tomorrow for the New York Mets. If you do not understand that, you should not be running their club.

I will be totally honest and upfront; I advised against the Mets current strategy of “going for it” when Steve Cohen bought the club. The bottom line is the Mets don’t have a real foundation to build a real dynasty. They’re broken parts mashed together by super glue and it’s kinda working right now because there are enough resources there.

If Steve Cohen would have hired me from day one, I would have tore his baseball team to the ground. Trade deGrom. Nobody is off limits on the major league roster. You can’t build a sustainable contender like the Dodgers unless you do that while weaponizing your payroll in the right way. Let’s be real, Trey also doesn’t take no for an answer so I wouldn’t have taken the job if I can’t be myself. Their loss.

Instead, Cohen decided to hire the great idiot Sandy Alderson (don’t worry, we’re referencing him now because he’s causing a ripple effect on the current team). Cohen didn’t go out and do a heavy search. He hired the guy that was already there just because. Sandy Alderson doesn’t know baseball. Anybody that trades several years of control of Pete Crow Armstrong for two months of Javier Baez (who for the record kinda sucks) doesn’t know anything about baseball.

Eventually, Alderson was replaced by Billy Eppler… oh, but don’t worry Alderson is still in the building. He got a promotion. That’s how this works remember? Do bad things, and get rewarded for them. Anyway… back to Eppler. He was supposed to be a “real baseball guy”. Despite never having a clue with the Angels, at least he had experience so that was good enough for Cohen.

To start the season, Eppler mostly did the job of what Cohen’s vision looks like. He wants to win right now and will pay whatever it takes to get there. Dave Dombrowski wasn’t always my cup of tea in Boston but you always have to respect his commitment to wanting to win. I feel the same way about Cohen. If you’re willing to REALLY spend, there is always a pathway. Just don’t go short changing me when I ask to get something approved.

A lot of the moves worked. When you can spend the way they have with no long term consequences, it’s hard to be terrible at it. Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Max Scherzer, and Chris Bassitt have all absolutely helped. There is no denying that. The Mets are an absolute wagon and Jacob deGrom is making his first start today. Heading into the deadline with a three game lead on the defending champion Braves is a hell of a place to be.

Finish the job.

Finish the job.

Finish the job.

This is the New York Mets. You leave no stone unturned. What can go wrong, will go wrong. I don’t need to remind any fan of the franchise of the horror stories. They have been through enough. They’re the great idiots of society and I mean that in the most sincere way. I bond with the Mets people being a Sox fan. I’m well aware of what this franchise has been through. The Mets fans deserve this title. No owner in sports wants to win more than Steve Cohen and his pocketbooks reflect that sentiment.

Finish the job. Heading into deadline day your job running Steve Cohen’s team is to land three big fish. The names aren’t necessarily irrelevant but you have to pump fear into the rest of major league baseball. This isn’t the same old Mets. WE will leave no stone unturned. We’re going to step on your throats and bring some real George Steinbrenner vibes to a place where you feel helpless. I need every person in the Mets organization from the top down believing we have the best team in baseball and there is no god damn way we’re not throwing a parade in the city of New York.

They didn’t do that today. The Mets didn’t land three big fish. They landed three minnows. Mychal Givens, Darin Ruf, and Tyler Naquin isn’t good enough. The headline writes itself. You can see it already. Mets lose close playoff series, fans wonder why they didn’t do anything relevant at the trade deadline. It’s plain as day.

Billy Eppler should be thrown in jail. There are criminals in prison that have done less than what Eppler did to every Met fan across the world today. He affected the entire New York economy. That moron sat there and said my baseball team is good enough.

The job wasn’t done. It never was. This Mets team isn’t winning the World Series. You hear that? Oh, that shadow of a doubt creeping back in? Think Met fans are feeling confident right now after that deadline? Not a chance. It’s called reading the room and Eppler didn’t do it. I don’t want to be overly insensitive here but it’s so egregious that he should realistically hire a bodyguard to protect himself from some of their fans.

JD Martinez should have been playing for the Mets. The same should be said for Willson Contreras. In a perfect world, Nathan Eovaldi too. You’re already all in. Push the chips to the center and finish the job.

The best part is this wouldn’t even been that hard. Send Mark Vientos to Boston. The trade was staring them in the face.

From the Boston perspective, in a perfect world, you make the playoffs so you’re not really going to totally sell unless other teams make it worth you while. You have some leverage here. With the qualifying rule in place, Martinez can either return for a decent chunk of change or Boston will receive draft pick compensation for having him sign elsewhere. If you can top that, you get the player now.

Sure, you don’t want to trade Vientos for a couple of months for Martinez but he’s a former second round pick with a very high K% in the minors. Those guys don’t always make it but his power is intriguing enough to where Boston would gladly take the chance on him. It’s something I listed in my last post. It’s about as fair as it gets.

If the Mets did their homework, they would realize Martinez is worth the acquisition price. His postseason track record speaks for itself. Martinez is easily one five guys you would want at the position. His most underrated skill is one that doesn’t have a price tag. That fucking guy cares and he’s an alien when it comes to the video stuff. He makes all of the rest of the guys in your lineup better.

You want to erase the bad taste in your mouth? It starts with bringing guys like JD Martinez into your clubhouse.

This day should have been easy for the Mets. Send Vientos to Boston for Martinez. Send Ronny Mauricio to the Cubs for Willson Contreras. If you can get the Sox to lump in Eovaldi (unlikely) even better. At minimum, I’m walking out of there with Martinez and Contreras along with a bullpen piece. There was no other course of action given the Mets current day operating system.

Want to hear the best part? The Mets didn’t take that course of action because they didn’t want to repeat Alderson’s mistake of dealing Pete Crow Armstrong for two months of Javier Baez. If you needed any more evidence of how idiotic this Mets front office is, look no further than imagining how they came to the conclusion that Javier Baez is on the same tier as JD Martinez. If they believe that, they should stop watching baseball.

Then again, it’s not surprising they think that considering the industry laughed at them when they failed to sign Kumar Rocker and watched the Rangers pick him third overall the following year. They also passed on Justin Crawford TWICE which wouldn’t have been the case if I ran their club. Cam Collier would have been my other pick. We’ll see who’s right on that one. If you’re good at scouting, you can replace Vientos and Mauricio. This isn’t that hard.

You have no idea how sad I am writing this. I wanted to root for the Mets so bad. We will never know what the alternate universe would have looked like with JD Martinez and Willson Contreras in their lineup. I do know this. Szn canceled. The Mets just had to find a way to screw this up. It will be the same old story for the Mets come October. They will lose another important playoff game because their offense isn’t good enough to finish the job.

Remember the last time Met fans tried to argue with me? I told them Zack Wheeler was really good and it was their fault he was underachieving. How did that one work out?

I just want Met fans to know I would have finished the job. They could have counted on me to win them this ring. They all deserve better. The bad karma is all over the place. Can you imagine if they get the Phillies in a short series and they get a fistful of revenge Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard? I don’t even want to think about it.

It’s infuriating as a baseball fan because the best part is Cohen’s high payroll would have put pressure on other owners to spend if they won this title. Instead they cheaped out right at the very end and I hope this haunts every person in that organization forever. The Mets did the wrong thing today and I hope it doesn’t go unnoticed. The Mets won’t win the World Series this year and it’s a god damn shame.

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