QUEENS — New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler still believes that manager Buck Showalter and his coaching staff are worthy of a longer grace period despite a disappointing start from the most expensive team in baseball.
“They deserve an opportunity to keep this going,” Eppler said on Tuesday afternoon before the Mets took on the Brewers at Citi Field.
The $344 million roster has mustered just 35 wins out of their first 78 (35-43) games this season with their postseason hopes already rapidly dwindling. Not only are they 16 games back of the NL East division crown, but they entered play on Wednesday night 8.5 games back of the last Wild Card spot and five teams in between them and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
A lineup that went largely unchanged from last year’s 101-win team has been ineffective, ranking 16th in runs per game after finishing fifth last year.
Jeff McNeil, the defending MLB batting champion, is batting under .260 this season. Starling Marte and Daniel Vogelbach possess OPSs under .700. While Pete Alonso is near the top of the league in home runs, he’s batting .222, which would be a career worst. Francisco Lindor is just one point higher at .223 despite being an elite run producer with 53 RBI.
In the starting rotation, the headlining duo of future Hall-of-Famers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer have not come as advertised.
Scherzer, who has dealt with a 10-game suspension along with neck and issues, has a 3.95 ERA this season. Verlander, who missed the first month of the season, lowered his ERA to 4.11 after five scoreless innings on Monday night against Milwaukee.
That’s a lengthy list of proven, veteran ballplayers that have had struggled at times throughout the season. For Eppler, he still believes it’s only a matter of time before things correct themselves and they make a playoff push.
“I believe in the talent on this team,” Eppler said. “I believe they can play at that win percentage… There’s 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. In their history, they’ve been tested and you lean on the back of the baseball card for these guys.”
On top of that, an unreliable bullpen has been unable to find its footing after the blow of losing star closer Edwin Diaz just before the start of the season to a torn patellar tendon in his knee.
For Eppler, those intangibles have only made Showalter’s job of navigating the Mets toward winning ways all the more difficult. And that’s why, it appears, that there isn’t much of a thought of making a change.
“Buck’s had a good amount of adversity heaped his way,” Eppler said. “It started in spring training with the loss of Diaz and losing some of the pitchers for a time… Justin at the start of the year, Max with his suspension and the irregular workload. I think Buck has handled that adversity and I think he’s the guy to get us back on track.”
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