Eppler confident on turnaround: ‘There’s too much track record’
NEW YORK — Steve Cohen sat in the Mets dugout before his club opened up the home slate for the 2023 season a month ago.
At the time, the Mets were 3-4 and coming off a sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers. His message: It’s too early to panic.
General manager Billy Eppler sat in that same spot Friday afternoon before the Mets started a series against the Colorado Rockies. The team was 16-16, and this time it had just been swept by the Detroit Tigers.
His message was somewhat similar, though he didn’t exactly frame it in the same way the owner did. Eppler’s message was this: The club believes in the players on this roster and their ability to turn this season around.
“Not succumbing to the recency bias but kind of taking a step back and trying to look at it from a 10,000-foot view, I believe in this roster. I believe in this team and players that are here,” Eppler said. “There’s too much track record, there’s too much these guys have accomplished [and] there’s too much knowhow.”
The Mets have had stretches where the offense has carried them but the pitching has imploded. They’ve also had good pitching performances but no run support. The bottom of the lineup has not been producing, and the rotation has fallen apart with injuries and, at times, been downright ineffective. Mets’ starters have thrown the sixth-fewest innings in the league.
“That’s been the part of our club that probably hasn’t put up
the numbers they’ve expected or we’ve expected,” Eppler said.
The Mets were anticipating injuries and periods of ineffectiveness with an older staff, but they weren’t expecting to have to use all of those reinforcements by the end of April.
“We weren’t expecting to use 22 pitchers within the first month of the season,” Eppler said. “I think we’ve used the second-most in baseball.
“You prepare for that. And one of the things that we always talked about in the wintertime is building the depth; you’re just not foreseeing that you’re going to have to use it in the first 30 days of the season . ... This time of year you’d probably be more in the 15-16 pitcher usage area.
“But I’ll tell you what, there’s reason for optimism.”
Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander have returned to the rotation, though their results have been sort of a mixed bag, and
Carlos Carrasco is next. Looking at the numbers, Eppler thinks Scherzer will be able to increase his velocity once he is back on a five-day schedule. He thinks lefthander David Peterson will be able to improve in Triple A.
There isn’t much Eppler can do about the starting pitching right now, but he could give the offense a boost with Mark Vientos or Ronny Mauricio, two prospects who are currently tearing up Triple A.
Eppler acknowledged the offense’s shortcomings. Much like last season, it’s still a stationto-station offense and big hitters, like Starling Marte and Daniel Vogelbach, aren’t producing big numbers.
The DH spot has been particularly troublesome. Tommy Pham has done well as a platoon hitter, but Vogelbach has hit only one home run and is slugging .383 with a .789 OPS. His high walk rate remains, but the power hasn’t been there this season.
“We like getting on base, but we like hitting the ball hard too,” Eppler said. “He’s aware of that.
“But the quality of his at-bats, he makes you work. We’ve seen the impact from him in the past, so no doubt that he’s gonna be able to get that back.”
One could make the case for Vientos, the first baseman/third baseman who boasts a 1.148 OPS with nine home runs in Triple A, or even shortstop Mauricio, who has six home runs and a .982 OPS. But figuring out where to play them would be a challenge.
They’re both blocked at their respective positions. Mauricio has played a few games at second base recently in an attempt to get a feel for other positions, and he’s still blocked there too.