Reese Kaplan -- Evaluating How the Mets Did Steps 2 and 4

There was quite a lot of commentary about the evaluation of the pre-season work done by the front office to get ready to move towards a consistently competitive team after many years of being also-rans.  Yes, the team itself tripped over its own feet against Atlanta, in the final weekend and then again in the playoff round, but you can't significantly fault a team that won 101 games.

So now we move into step two of the evaluation process in how well the Mets did to set the stage for the right kind of roster.  Well, first you have to look towards (and shoot off all kinds of fireworks in appreciation) of Steve Cohen's wallet which enabled them to bring in some very high quality players that made 2021 and 2022 as different as night and day.  

Can you really imagine under the Wilpon regime a team going after the number one outfielder, the number one pitcher and supplementing with quality picks like Eduardo Escobar, Adam Ottavino and the trade for Chris Bassitt?  Not really.  The Wilpons would have had Mark Canha batting cleanup and using the best of the AAAA types filling out the rest of the roster.  Who here forgets the additions of James Loney types to become principle players in the Mets lineup?

Of course, spending money is not the only way to build a roster.  The trade mechanism is still alive though some might think it is on life support.  The Mets did not deal away anyone of significant principle this off season, but other than Chris Bassitt they really didn't acquire anyone noteworthy either.  The Wilpons were big on trading off anyone with a pulse in the minor leagues to bring in players who had at least logged some major league time without regarding to how well they performed.   

Billy Eppler should be commended for hanging onto the cream of the crop of minor leaguers in the few deals he did make, but what he obtained calls to mind the old cliche about you have to give to get.  Many fans and media types were incensed that the Mets' competitors went out to obtain middle of the order types like Juan Soto while the Mets big hurrah was for Darin Ruf and/or Tyler Naquin.  (If you need a reminder, Naquin was the star of that duo, hitting barely over .200 while Ruf finished in the .150s.)

So the question here is how much latitude did Eppler have in making midseason acquisitions?  Was he told that the payroll was already high enough, that the team was already playing well enough or that the slumping players would rebound?  Perhaps he was told that the impact players in AA and AAA were going to be a part of the 2023 and beyond roster construction.  Or maybe he was told not to give them a major role to preserve their stellar minor league numbers and enhance their attractiveness in offseason trades.  

Now it's very easy to give Eppler a grade of D- for how he handled the midseason acquisitions and an incomplete for how he handles the salary requirements and free agency options for the 13 New York Mets who can choose to find a new employer.  

We won't know yet how well he does on the latter but on the former there's not a fan nor media wannabe who is willing to extol any praise on Eppler for going what seems like the Wilpon route of finding people with pulses and several seasons of major league experience regardless of whether or not any of it recently has been productive.  No one thinks that he really was fiscally constrained as much as everyone has seen how willing Cohen is to spend money.  

I would think that the judgment he exercised on not the best of the best but the best of the rest was substandard (to use a polite characterization).  

As good as most of 2022 was for the New York Mets, the real microscope goes onto the front office for 2023 with no more Sandy Alderson, a full year of Mets experience under the belt for Billy Eppler, the slew of departing free agents and the need to integrate or peddle top notch minor leaguers to help fortify the upcoming team roster.  We won't know how well Eppler does in the free agent departure negotiations nor in the incoming marketing to prospective new Mets until it happens.  

I inadvertently may have merged steps two and four into a single evaluation as they are closely related.  However, given the horrific July and August of 2022, Eppler is now skating on very thin ice with the folks who are fans of his ballclub.