Billy Eppler’s Journey Through A Big-Time Offseason

There’s no such thing as an offseason in sports anymore. Especially in baseball. And, for New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler, he was busier this winter than he will be at any other point during the year.

When the cold weather hits and the dark settles in early, the vast majority of us bunker down and count down the days until spring arrives. For Eppler, and other baseball executives, the winter is when their most important work is conducted. It’s when the foundations are set for the grueling 162-game regular season ahead.

It’s when the pieces are put in place for what all baseball executives hope will result in a successful season.

For Eppler, the start of spring training earlier this month probably acted as somewhat of a brief respite after the busiest winter in franchise history. The Mets accomplished a hell of a lot in a condensed period of time and Eppler was at the forefront of it all.

While owner Steve Cohen was the man bankrolling what resulted in a $445 million offseason – factoring in penalties for blowing through luxury tax thresholds – Eppler was the man driving the bus and putting in hours after hours after hours of work to ensure the groceries bought were the right ones. Just because you’re shopping at Whole Foods doesn’t guarantee that the goods bought will turn out great.

You need someone with an intricate knowledge of the game to make crucial decisions on baseball personnel, and Eppler ticks that box given that he’s a baseball lifer. He oversaw a final haul of 10 players signed to a major league contract, tying a franchise record for a single winter. Eppler probably also set a record for most hours on the phone to one person given he was in constant dialogue with Cohen throughout what was one of the most important winters this organization has had to navigate.

“I’m making bets on this side and he’s making bets on this side,” Eppler told The Athletic’s Will Sammon for a feature story. “So when we talk probabilistically, he gets it. Like, he’s got it. Then his questions become really advanced. That’s what makes the phone call exciting. This is not going to be a one-way conversation with me saying, ‘Hey, I’d like to do this.’ It’s more like, ‘Let’s talk about the probabilities and band of outcomes here.’ ‘Let’s talk about the opportunity cost here.’ ‘Let’s talk about what the alternatives are.’ Then, it’s ‘Let’s talk about the farm system.’ And then, ‘Let’s think probabilistically about all these things and model this out.”

Those conversations between owner and GM laid the foundations for what was to follow. Coming off a 101-win season was never going to be enough for an ambitious owner and a driven front office. Especially given how their season flamed out in the NL Wild Card loss to the Padres. As a result, Eppler led the charge as the Mets re-signed two key players, rebuilt their entire rotation and added depth pieces to the offense, all while not depleting their farm system.

You could argue that Eppler didn’t sleep at all this winter. One longtime agent told The Athletic that “I’m not certain he slept over the winter. The man grinds.” Eppler, who shares three young children with his wife Catherine, has certainly grafted during his short tenure as GM of the Mets. That can’t be disputed. While he’s had some misses – notably at last year’s trade deadline – he built a roster that won 101 games in 2022 and more success should follow in 2023.

Eppler’s mammoth offseason truly began while the Houston Astros were still celebrating their World Series win in early November. In a move that set the tone for the entire offseason, Eppler and the Mets wasted no time in signing superstar reliever Edwin Diaz to a record-breaking five-year, $102 million contract. Diaz was coming off a historic 2022 season in which he dominated the sport and became a true master of his craft, and Eppler and Cohen wanted to send a message early that the Mets meant business heading into the winter.

It worked.

And things only cranked up from that point onwards. Thanksgiving proved to be another important turning point in the offseason, the official start date if you like of when things really became chaotic. According to The Athletic, Eppler even warned his wife that things were going to “really, really speed up.”

With the writing on the wall that franchise cornerstone Jacob deGrom was going to walk in free agency, Eppler had been staying in touch with his star pitcher as well as talking to the agent of Justin Verlander, another star-studded starting pitcher who was about to hit the open market. With things beginning to gather pace, Eppler’s leg work began to pay off. By the time deGrom signed with the Texas Rangers on Dec. 2, Eppler and Cohen had already met with Verlander.

The day after deGrom’s departure, a Saturday, Eppler hopped on a long video call with Verlander. On the Monday, Eppler had Verlander’s agent, Mark Pieper, meet him in his hotel room in San Diego where the Winter Meetings were taking place. Pieper told The Athletic that “the communication was very open” throughout the process, and the conversations had up until that point ensured that Pieper and Verlander never met with other teams. The parties were in agreement before 9 a.m. on that Monday morning.

“We didn’t want to let him leave the room,” Eppler told The Athletic. “So we didn’t let him leave the room.”

That quote offers a good insight into Eppler’s mentality. He won’t quit until the job is done. He replaced one future Hall of Famer with another. Verlander, who won the Cy Young and a World Series with the Astros in 2022, signed a two-year, $86.7 million contract with the Mets and softened the blow of losing deGrom. A tandem of Verlander and Max Scherzer also gives the Mets arguably one of the best one-two punches at the top of the rotation in all of baseball.

For some teams, signing a nine-time All-Star and a three-time Cy Young Award winner would have been enough. Time to sit back and relax. Not for Eppler. Not for the Mets who are on a relentless mission to win a World Series or three under Cohen. Instead, Eppler locked himself in his hotel room at the Winter Meetings and accomplished more in a week than some general managers do in an entire offseason.

During that hectic seven-day span, Eppler sealed the deal with Verlander, pulled the trigger on a trade for reliever Brooks Raley, selected another reliever in Zach Greene in the Rule 5 draft and bolstered the rotation with veteran José Quintana. It didn’t stop there. While in the air on the way back to New York, Eppler continued to grind and he was able to get done one of the Mets’ biggest deals of the offseason while still on the plane. Signing outfielder Brandon Nimmo to an eight-year, $162 million contract to keep the longtime Met in New York. The Athletic noted that Eppler said “90 percent of that deal” took place before he even touched down.

Eppler noted that the entire franchise “were flying” during that period. They had already ticked so many boxes, addressed some big needs and answered some serious questions about the roster. However, it wasn’t time for Eppler to ease off just yet. Instead, after asking his scouting department, his analytics department, his player development staff and his major league coaching staff what the biggest offseason priority was, Eppler went after more pitching.

Enter Kodai Senga.

Senga, who had dominated in Japan, was being chased by a lot of other MLB teams but New York always seemed to be the preferred destination given that Eppler had earned a reputation for his relentless work in scouting players in Japan. A career of going the extra mile and putting in the hours again paid off as, on Dec. 10, Senga FaceTimed Eppler and said, “Let’s Go Mets,” according to The Athletic.

“That was one hell of a 10-week run or however long it was,” a Mets official told The Athletic. “Whatever it was, I know it was nuts.”

Nuts is probably a good way to describe this offseason for the Mets and for Eppler. We haven’t even mentioned the whole Carlos Correa saga yet which is another intriguing wrinkle in what was already a fascinating winter. Correa would have been the crowning glory had that deal gone through, but it doesn’t take away from what was a successful mission for Eppler and the rest of the front office.

The Mets added another elite arm to the top of their rotation, they filled out the rest of the rotation with solid starters, they retained one of the best relievers in the game, they were able to keep hold of a key veteran in Nimmo, they filled out some other holes and they were in play on a true superstar in Correa. And a lot of that can be traced back to the amount of leg work being done in the background by Eppler.

It was a joint effort, too. Eppler made sure to dish out credit to the plethora of people involved in the overall decision-making, including manager Buck Showalter and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner who would both get messages from Eppler late into the night asking for opinions on a multitude of different names.

“A lot gets asked of them,” Eppler told The Athletic. “They should be recognized for what we were able to do.”

And the Mets did a lot. A hell of a lot. After signing veteran outfielder Tommy Pham to put the finishing touches to the major league roster, Eppler was finally able to spend some time with family and they will be with him for the early part of spring training.

What probably got lost during the offseason frenzy, and what this Athletic story made clear, was just how big a role Eppler played in ensuring everything the Mets needed to accomplish got done. And then some. While his time in New York won’t be truly judged until after he’s gone, Eppler proved this offseason that he can handle the pressures of leading an offseason for a legitimate World Series contender.

You can read The Athletic’s full story on Eppler here.

The post Billy Eppler’s Journey Through A Big-Time Offseason first appeared on Metsmerized Online.