"He can’t be f*****g serious" "It shouldn’t be this hard to admit failure" - New York Mets furious with General Manager Billy Eppler stating that he has no regrets over handling of trade deadline

Five days after the New York Mets were eliminated from the playoffs by the San Diego Padres, general manager Billy Eppler reflected on the season while addressing the media on Friday afternoon.

Eppler was asked if his handling of the trade deadline squandered the Mets’ chances, to which he replied by saying “no regrets.”

“It’s hard to pinpoint what would have been better or identify that. You’re dealing in a really short sample. No, I don’t have any regrets on it. We did it without robbing the future in a significant way. Any trade hurts. You want to keep as much of your talent as possible. That’s kind of why [owner] Steve [Cohen] has said what he has said, which is we’ll use some financial strength to keep us out of that position so that we can build something long-term.” - Billy Eppler

The Mets decided against calling up any of their top 19 prospects and made only incremental improvements by acquiring DH Daniel Vogelbach, 1B/DH/COF Darin Ruf, OF Tyler Naquin, and reliever Mychal Givens at the trade deadline.

At the Aug. 2 deadline, the Mets ranked fourth in the majors with 4.73 runs per game. Thanks to Vogelbach, who produced a .393 on-base percentage and .830 OPS, the Mets improved their average to 4.83 runs per game.

However, their other arrivals didn’t make any impact at all. Ruf was regularly benched late in the season, Naquin didn’t make the playoff roster while Givens compiled a 4.79 ERA.

The New York Mets will have multiple stars hitting free agency soon

Despite winning 101 games and leading the National League East for the majority of the season, the New York Mets’ late-season struggles saw them finish second in the division to the Atlanta Braves.

After getting eliminated in the very first round of the playoffs, the Mets need to go back to the drawing board. One of the issues they will need to address is the impending free agency of stars like Jacob deGrom and Edwin Diaz.

DeGrom was asked about his future plans immediately after the Mets’ elimination from the playoffs, but declined to give a concrete answer.

"I'm not gonna discuss any contract stuff. Just disappointed we lost the baseball game tonight" - Jacob deGrom

Should the New York Mets fail to retain deGrom and Diaz, getting back to the playoffs will prove to be a tougher task. There are a lot of uncertainties surrounding the Mets’ future and only time will provide us with clarity.