Grading Billy Eppler and the New York Mets front office at midseason
By Bill Felber
Free agency
Everybody understands that Eppler’s offseason bread and butter was the free agent market. He signed, re-signed or extended 20 players, 17 of whom who have seen time with the Mets.
Many of the names are readily recognizable. AL Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander was signed for three seasons at a cost of a little more than $121 million. Eppler got Kodai Senga out of Japan for six seasons at $90 million.
Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo both re-signed, McNeil for $64 million through 2027 and Nimmo for $158.5 million through 2030. Gary Sanchez came, stayed a week and was jettisoned when his defensive inabilities showed through.
Eppler also signed Diaz for $121.5 million through 2028, that signing coming before his World Baseball Classic injury.
The disheartening aspect for Eppler has to be that despite all that cash outflow, production has been close to ordinary. As a group, those 20 signings have generated 1.3 WAA to the Mets’ cause; barely more than one full game of value.
Eppler also let 10 players leave either by release or through free agency. For the most part, those 10 (and this includes Jacob deGrom to Texas) have not been missed. Their collective impact on their new teams amounts to -1.9 WAA … so Eppler avoided a lot of trouble in cutting ties. The exception has been starter Taijuan Walker, who caught on with the division rival Phillies and is 9-3 with a 3.93 ERA. That boils down to +1.1 WAA.