The New York Mets began their offseason after last Sunday’s game ended, and it’s been a wild couple of days. Manager Buck Showalter said before the game that he was not returning for 2024. A decision that didn’t make Pete Alonso happy. Soon after the game ended, owner Steve Cohen expressed that Showalter was fired by him and David Stearns, the new President of Baseball Operations. The following day, the Mets officially introduced Stearns. On Tuesday, reports surfaced from ESPN’s Jesse Rogers that Alonso was open to going to the Chicago Cubs. However, some within the Mets don’t believe that to be true. On Wednesday evening, Mike Puma of the New York Post reported that Showalter and General Manager Billy Eppler clashed over Daniel Vogelbach’s playing time. So, what would Thursday bring? As it turns out, it was a lot to unpack.
Wild Day For The Mets
Pete Alonso Hires Agent Mets Are Familiar With
Mets fans woke up Thursday morning and raised an eyebrow to the latest page of the Pete Alonso free agency book. A familiar name to the Mets, both for good and bad reasons, entered the picture. Per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, it was revealed that Alonso had hired Scott Boras as his agent.
ICYMI, Mets star Pete Alonso, who has the 3rd most HRs through 5 seasons with 192 ( behind Ralph Kiner’s 215 and Albert Pujols’ 201, despite losing 102 games in the pandemic), hires BorasCorp as his free agent year approaches (for story, click the pic)
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) October 5, 2023
https://t.co/sKuEBXmtKR
This is a huge development in the Mets saga with Alonso. As Heyman states, Boras is known for getting most of his players to free agency. We also know that Boras gets the most out of his clients when it’s time for them to get paid. Whatever his client wants, his client gets under him no matter what. What reportedly separates the Mets and Alonso is not the money; it’s the years, as Alonso wants a 10-year deal. The other side is that the Mets and Cohen have a good relationship with Boras. Signing clients such as Max Scherzer and Brandon Nimmo. It’s an interesting wrench, to say the least, and one that can either play into the Mets’ favor or get Alonso to another team. Heyman also noted the Mets might be the favorites for pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Why Mets and these other 10 teams covet Yamamoto. How does he compare to Senga/Snell? Why Counsell may actually come to NY. What upset Pete but also why Mets shouldn’t give up hope there. Notes on the Vogey effect, Buck sendoff and a nice gesture by Cohenhttps://t.co/4YJWPIeFsS
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) October 6, 2023
Billy Eppler Resigns
Then, out of the blue, the Mets General Manager was gone. Billy Eppler unexpectedly resigned from the club. The Mets and Eppler released this statement.
Mets’ full release announcing Billy Eppler’s surprise resignation pic.twitter.com/ENG3Yx2bL1
— Danny Abriano (@DannyAbriano) October 5, 2023
While Eppler said he wanted Stearns to have a “clean slate,” something didn’t add up. Cohen had stated multiple times he wanted Stearns and Eppler to work together. He planned for a while to bring in someone to help out Eppler. Some speculated that this was the idea all along and that Cohen was always going to fire Eppler as soon as he brought in a guy like Stearns. Others felt that he was fired when it was revealed that he feuded with Showalter over Vogelbach. Soon, though, we would find out why Eppler shockingly resigned, and it was for something completely different.
Eppler Under MLB Investigation
Per Jon Heyman, Eppler’s resignation was due to him being investigated by MLB for improper use of the injured list.
Post Exclusive; Eppler resignation came amid MLB investigation into improper Injury List placementshttps://t.co/FvSVJ9Q8Gs
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) October 6, 2023
According to Heyman, MLB was tipped off by an anonymous letter about this situation and that MLB plans to interview Mets employees. The decision from Eppler to resign came shortly after MLB notified the Mets of their investigation. So, after a year, Cohen’s plan of having Eppler work with somebody only lasted a mere three days. Eppler is now gone and under MLB investigation, and Stearns is alone.
Mets Must Get The House In Order
The offseason for the Mets is less than a week old and it’s already too chaotic and messy. That should not happen. No team this quickly into an offseason should be garnering many headlines, but the Mets are. Cohen and Stearns now have to get things back in order, and that starts by hiring a manager (maybe even a General Manager if they so choose). Craig Counsell is the odds-on favorite now that the Milwaukee Brewers season is over after their Wild-Card series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. No matter what they do next, Thursday and this week in general, can’t be the start to an offseason of chaos in Queens.
Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports
