Mets general manager Billy Eppler isn’t about to second-guess the conservative approach he took at the trade deadline.
The team added Daniel Vogelbach, Tyler Naquin, Darin Ruf and Mychal Givens before Aug. 2 without surrendering top prospects. Vogelbach gave the team a needed lefty presence at the plate, but Ruf and Naquin, in particular, were disappointments.
“No regrets,” Eppler said Friday. “We had a process. We had a good group of people in the room. A good group of people we were consulting with. I think from Vogelbach’s perspective it was pretty good. I would be curious if you could point out somebody who outhit him who was traded or how many of the guys [on the market] who weren’t traded, if they outhit him from that point forward. And we did it without robbing the future in a significant way.
“It’s hard to pinpoint what would have been better. You’re dealing in a really short sample [size] so I don’t have any regrets on it. We improved our run scoring from that moment when we acquired [Vogelbach]. Our runs per game was higher, ultimately just in sequencing and how things play out, it didn’t fall our way at the end.”
Billy Eppler speaks to the media on Friday. Bill Kostroun/New York Post
In 55 games, Vogelbach had a .255/.393/.436 slash line with six homers and 25 RBIs for the Mets. Possibilities from the right side at the trade deadline included J.D. Martinez (who was retained by the Red Sox) and Willson Contreras (who stayed with the Cubs). The Mets also passed on David Robertson, who went from the Cubs to Phillies, and dealt for Givens, who was respectable for the Mets down the stretch after a rough first outing with the club that inflated his ERA.
Ruf, who was acquired in a trade that sent J.D. Davis and three minor leaguers to the Giants, was by far the biggest disappointment. The veteran outfielder owned a .152/.216/.197 slash line with the Mets. Naquin also was subpar, posting a .203/.246/.390 slash line. Davis went .263/.361/.496 with San Francisco after going .238/.324/.359 with the Mets.
Eppler said he’s satisfied with the process team brass used in approaching the trade deadline.
“You evaluate it right at that time,” Eppler said. “You don’t result it, because I think if you end up using results to guide in a probabilistic world I think you are going to end up chasing bias or recent events to try to shape that narrative and I don’t think that’s better for the long term view.”
