Billy Eppler hopes Mets can 'change the story' before trade deadline

After a 101-win season and a playoff berth, the 2023 Mets have underperformed based on preseason expectations.

A big reason for that has been the play on the field, and the roster construction. Mets GM Billy Eppler made himself available to the media before Tuesday’s game to field questions regarding the roster and the team’s performance, and he said that there are two aspects of this year’s team that has performed below the team’s preseason projections: the on-field execution and the pitching.

“Being able to repeat pitches, have the ball behave the way they want it to behave,” Eppler said when asked why the pitching as deviated. “We're in a position where we’re changing some things up, moving some pieces around. Heff are working on Pitch design and get these guys in a better spot. That's where our mind is right now.”

The Mets are a season-worst eight games below .500 and 8.5 games behind the last Wild Card spot.

If this team hopes to make the postseason for the second consecutive season, they’ll have to turn things around, a sentiment that’s been shared by the team for weeks now, but Eppler still believes the Mets can get to October and explained why the fans should too.

“A lot of track record on the players. That’s one of the benefits of having a veteran team, they’ve been through a lot of adversity before,” Eppler said. “In their history they’ve been tested and you lean on the back of the baseball cards with these guys.”

Unfortunately, as Eppler said, the track record of the Mets’ two aces, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, have not lived up to their expectations. 

Scherzer, acquired prior to the 2022 season, while pitching to a 7-2 record and 3.95 ERA that’s on the back of his last two starts where he’s given up just three runs in 14 innings. Verlander, the big free-agent acquisition prior to this season, has been a far cry from his 1.75 ERA AL Cy Young season last year. He’s 2-4 with a 4.11 ERA and was on the mound in Monday’s 2-1 loss to the Brewers.

The combination of the team’s underperformance and the contracts of the Mets’ co-aces has led to speculation as to what the team will do at the trade deadline. And although it’s still a little over a month away, Eppler is waiting to see where the Mets are as we get closer to it.

“One of the benefits you have is that every time we play you have a chance to change the story,” Eppler said. “We have a decent amount or runway before the deadline. We hope we can change the story. If we can, we can add. If it doesn’t we’ll have to create other opportunities and see what else exists out there. A lot of the focus is on the present and how we can attack each day.”

Despite the Mets’ standing, Eppler reiterated what he said in his introductory press conference. The goal of the team is to build long-term success through the big-league roster and farm system simultaneously.

Eppler explained how the Mets front office balances the short-term and long-term deals that are negotiated at the deadline.

“One of the goals of this organization is to drive the World Series odds over a long-term time horizon,” he said. “You forecast what you’ll get from the acquisition you make and the time period you’ll get that value and weigh that with what you foresee in the immediate future then make the assessment based on that calculus.”

Last season, the Mets made minimal moves at the deadline and decided to keep their top-tier players like Francisco Alvarez, Mark Vientos, Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio.

While Alvarez and Baty have found themselves in the everyday lineup, there are some appealing trade pieces that could potentially be available at this year’s deadline.

However, Eppler said that his strategy when it comes to his younger players will be similar to last season’s.

“Last year we were not particularly willing to part with the top-level talent,” he said. “There were some situations where we talked about those players with other clubs but it was going to be for players we would control for multiple years moving forward, but when that didn’t come to light we weren’t going to move those players for rental players. So our approach will be the same.”

Eppler said that despite the Eduardo Escobar trade he hasn’t taken calls for more potential deals as of yet. Those calls will come as the deadline approaches, and the Mets’ standing this season comes into focus, and Eppler will try and salvage this season by fixing a roster that he takes responsibility for.

“I constructed the roster. We put this team together, largely, last year and supplemented with pieces we lost in the winter time but ultimately this is the club we have right now,” he said. “I think we expect them to be able to do more and they expect that of themselves.