NEWSLETTER
This is *probably* the last time I’ll mention it? Maybe? Look, I get that it’s become a pet project of mine to blast the New York Mets for their cowardly approach to the 2022 Trade Deadline, but it just makes me so angry. I have trouble letting it go, especially when Mets GM Billy Eppler is out there today defending the decision to do very little.
Here’s Eppler today reiterating that it was the right move to hold onto anything remotely resembling future value at the expense of improving the team for a postseason run this year:
It’s hard to pinpoint how a more aggressive trade approach would’ve made a difference. Hard. To. Pinpoint. OK.
Let me help.
Had the New York Mets won just one more game in the second half, they would’ve taken the NL East crown instead of the Atlanta Braves, and received a bye through the Wild Card round of the playoffs, where they instead just lost to the San Diego Padres. With that bye, the Mets would still be playing, and indeed may well be the team with a 2-1 lead in the NLDS, rather than the Braves.
One more game and you’re still playing.
The Mets lost NINE GAMES in the second half by just one or two runs (and that doesn’t include the series they were swept by the Cubs, each a three-run loss). You can’t say with some measure of confidence that if you – for example – had an impact bat at catcher instead of a literal below-replacement-value group, that might’ve led to just one more win? I’m thinking, yeah, maybe.
In the end, I get why Eppler is saying this. He knows how the Mets’ deadline approach is viewed by fans. He knows how AGGRESSIVELY he tried to lowball the Cubs in a Willson Contreras-David Robertson package. Hard not to just dig in your heels at this point.
But with Eppler’s boss looking to hire a new president – potentially ahead of Eppler – it’s also hard to see the cowardly deadline not impacting that process. The Mets had a balls out, loaded, aging, near-free-agency roster this year. You cannot prescript a better time to push all in.
