Mets’ Billy Eppler encouraged by recent play but ‘open to any opportunity’ as trade deadline looms
With the 2023 trade deadline just weeks away, the question of whether the Mets will be buyers or sellers is a hot topic in the baseball world.
And while he didn’t tip his hand, general manager Billy Eppler did shed some light as to what the organization’s thinking is heading into the second half of the 2023 season.
“You look at all of it,” Eppler said of how he evaluates this year’s team prior to Friday’s game against the Dodgers. “More this year, but you have to honor some of the things that happened recently. You look at the season as a whole, the track record, what the projections were and if they were updated. And make the call on what other people are seeing.”
The Mets sit at 42-48 and seven games out of the final Wild Card spot, but the final week before the All-Star break gave Eppler and the organization a reason to be optimistic about the direction of the team.
After winning their series against the Giants, the Mets swept the Diamondbacks before winning the first game of their weekend set against the Padres. And while they ultimately lost the series to San Diego, New York went into the break on a 6-3 run, which included a six-game winning streak.
“It was nice to see us play well,” Eppler said. “It was good to see in Arizona and the first game in San Diego. There’s more work to do, no doubt.”
That work begins Friday when the Mets host the Dodgers in a three-game series before the White Sox come to town. But as the Aug. 1 deadline approaches, Eppler and the team have to start making decisions.
The second-year GM confirmed that conversations between the Mets and other clubs have already taken place, but said that those talks are just in the general sense. He said these talks are to gauge where teams stand and what they are and are not looking for, and determine if there’s a match.
But Eppler said it’s way too soon to know what’s going to happen with the Mets or any other team.
“Opportunities, you’re going to weigh them,” he said. “What acquisitions you can make, every kind of situation is different but it’s an active market and it’s hard to predict what ultimately will happen and what might drive another team to do something.”
What the Mets and the players themselves have preached for weeks is finding that consistency that made them a 100-win team last season.
They showed flashes of that before the All-Star break, and they all hope that carries over into the second half.
Eppler said the deadline hasn’t put any more sense of urgency on the players than they already had on themselves and reiterated his feelings towards the team’s recent play.
“We were encouraged by what we were seeing going into the break and hope to continue upon that path,” he said.
But when asked if there was a scenario the Mets will be buyers and sellers at the deadline, Eppler was honest.
“I’ll be open to any opportunity,” he answered. “We’ll talk through it as a group and look for an avenue to continue to either add talent to the organization, whether it's short-term or long-term, we have to evaluate it all.”
The Mets have already made deals this season, trading Eduardo Escobar to the Angels and picking up bullpen arm Trevor Gott from the Mariners in separate trades. More deals are coming, just in what capacity is yet to be seen and it’ll be up to how the Mets play these next two weeks.
