QUEENS — The Mets have certainly suggested that they’re waiving the white flag on a discouraging 2023 after trading David Robertson on Thursday and Max Scherzer on Sunday, but general manager Billy Eppler hasn’t gotten the orders from owner Steve Cohen to go nuclear.
“Just to be clear, it’s not a rebuild, it’s not a firesale, it’s not a liquidation,” Eppler said on Sunday while officially confirming the trade of Scherzer. “This is just a repurposing of Steve’s investment in the club and kind of shifting that investment from the team into the organization.
With it comes the likely end of the frenzied shopping sprees that the Mets went on over the previous two winters to build what was thought to be contenders on paper, including an $800 million-plus bonanza ahead of the 2023 season to re-sign the likes of Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Diaz before bringing on Robertson, Justin Verlander, and Kodai Senga, among others.
They still will have to be prominent players on the market this offseason, especially when it comes to addressing the open spot in the rotation left by Scherzer’s exit and the ever-elusive void at the designated hitter spot.
“I don’t think we will be walking into 2024 with the same preseason odds that we did in 2022, 2023,” Eppler admitted. “Free agency is not the market that we want to rely on to build a championship team. It’s the market that we want to use to enhance the team that we have. We would rather go to that market for opportunities than necessity but we’re not there yet. That’s going to take a little time so we’re still going to have to invest through free agency.”
All the while, Eppler and Cohen will continue to stress the arming of their farm system, which has experienced a notable boost in recent days with the acquisition of two prospects in the Robertson trade and a third in the form of the highly-promising shortstop in Luisangel Acuna — the Rangers’ No. 3 prospect coming over in the Scherzer swap.
Such a lofty goal is usually one for a team that is, in fact, amidst a rebuild. Over the last decade baseball has seen the Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles build winners over a considerable period of time by hauling in young talent.
But the Mets are going to try and pull this off while remaining competitive.
“Generally with the clubs that are going to go through a rebuild, you have to endure five, six, seven years of losing,” Eppler said. “We don’t have the appetite for that. We’re not going to do that. What we want to do is use Steve’s investment and enhance the farm system and get us to our larger goal.
“This doesn’t mean we’re punting 2024. We’re going to have a competitive team. We just don’t want to endure long stretches of being bad. That’s not going to be satisfying to anybody.”
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