The Mets Should be Funny
The New York Mets hired Billy Eppler last week to be their new General Manager. That statement may be a simple and straightforward one, but the situation itself leaves us plenty to unpack, as it seemingly always does with the Metropolitans. Let’s begin by simply looking at the hire at face value.
Eppler began as a scout with the Colorado Rockies, eventually moving on to the Yankees in the same role. After shining in that position (his Wikipedia page gives him credit for the signings of Corey Wade and Edwar Ramirez, among other Yankee standouts of the day) he was promoted to Assistant GM of all things pinstriped in the Bronx after the 2011 season. As assistant GM of the Yankees, Eppler learned under the tutelage of Brian Cashman – which is to say he studied under a fourth-degree black belt in the ancient art of not-good-enough-fu (which I’ve already covered here). What you may not remember, is that under the Cashman-Eppler regime, the Yankees missed the postseason in both 2013 and 2014 – the first time they missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons in 21 years.
Eppler at Face Value
Several organizations have hired front office personnel who’ve worked with Theo Epstein, Billy Beane, and Andrew Friedman and had success with those hires. The Angels, never wanting to flatter successful teams with imitation, hired Eppler to be their GM at the end of the 2015 season. Who among us would quibble with hiring a guy who made his bones in the scouting department of the Rockies then helped turn the Yankees into a team that won 80 something games three years in a row?
To the surprise of absolutely no one who was paying attention in 2015, things didn’t go well for either Eppler or the Angels. Eppler inherited a team that over the previous four seasons, averaged 88 wins per season, had the best player of his generation on the roster, and just 12 months prior won 98 games and the AL West. That’s a team that’s not that far away from competing for the Commissioner’s Trophy.
Eppler took that team under his wing, and from 2016 through 2020 led them to a .468 winning percentage (76 wins per 162), with zero seasons over .500. Eppler’s Angels couldn’t even make the postseason in 2020 when more than half the league’s teams were in the playoffs.
Keep in mind that the Angels were not playing the long game under Eppler. They did not retool by shedding bad contracts, going with younger players from within the organization, etc. In the five seasons prior to Eppler taking over, the Angels’ annual average payroll was $130.8 million per season. From 2016-2020 with Eppler, it was $168.8 million per season.
When looked upon at face value, even the most talented Mets PR staffers had their hands full in trying to explain this hire. Most of the public comments from the Mets about Eppler revolved around some combination of his having worked in all facets of front offices, being well-liked, and having experience. A few PR statements disguised as journalism mentioned that Eppler was in a tough situation in Los Angeles working for Angels’ owner Arte Moreno (which of course ignores the fact that Eppler’s predecessor in Los Angeles, Jerry DiPoto, also worked for Moreno and managed to considerably outperform Eppler despite being allotted fewer resources). It also ignores a larger, more important aspect of this discussion.
Looking Deeper
We all know, despite our love affair with baseball, that MLB has some problems. One of the rather large ones is the league’s disinclination to hire women and people of color for high-ranking, baseball shot-calling, front office positions. In the case under discussion today, the Mets (as they seem to do with most decisions) presented a masterclass on how to be part of the problem, not the solution.
According to the 2021 Racial and Gender Report Card from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, as of Opening Day 2021, 38 percent of MLB players were people of color, but only 13 percent of the head baseball shot callers (general managers or presidents of baseball operations) were people of color. On a related side note, only 20 percent of field managers were people of color, which dropped to 17 percent at season’s end when Luis Rojas was fired…by the Mets.
When the Mets had an opening for an executive position, their first inclination was to reach out to Theo Epstein and Billy Beane, both of whom laughed, said “no thanks” and then laughed again. After that, they called David Stearns, Matt Arnold, and Mike Girsch. All of those middle aged white guys were not interested. At some point after all those “thanks, but no thanks” they landed on Eppler.
If we follow what the Mets did to its logical conclusion, what they’re telling us is that they scoured every front office of every team in MLB and came up with a grand total of zero women or people of color who are more qualified than Billy Eppler. If you believe that, I’ve got a few bridges around Citi Field to sell you because you sound like the folks who said players in the Negro Leagues weren’t good enough to compete in the National and American Leagues. I’m in lockstep with San Francisco’s president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who said “If I’m going to put my geek cap on, it’s a statistical impossibility that the best candidate for every position in baseball is a middle-aged Caucasian male.”
Let me be clear about a couple of things: First, this isn’t a judgment of Stearns who’s already done well, or Arnold and Girsch who very well may go on to be good GMs – the point is they will assuredly get more opportunities, which is why they had the luxury of turning this one down. Billy Eppler has spent two decades proving he’s not very good at this “being a GM” thing only to get yet another opportunity.
For some perspective, Kim Ng – the only woman, and one of only four minorities to call the shots for an MLB team – had 30 years of experience in MLB front offices and three World Series rings as an Assistant GM, went on nine interviews, and was turned down nine times before getting a GM job offer. One of the teams who turned her down was the Mets, who went on to hire Brodie Van Wagenen, who had no prior baseball front office experience instead. When that hire quite predictably didn’t work out, the Mets moved on to Jared Porter who was eventually fired for sending sexually inappropriate texts to a female journalist. Porter was replaced by Zack Scott who the Mets had to fire after Scott was arrested for a DUI. If you’re not aware, Van Wagenen, Porter, and Scott all look like Eppler. History suggests they will all get another opportunity to work in baseball at some point.
Secondly, it isn’t necessarily overt racism and/or sexism that’s the cause of the Mets’ woes. In fact, it’s more likely just plain incompetence. However, incompetence is the end result, not the cause. Ignorance is the cause that leads one to prejudicial thinking, and ultimately squarely to incompetence. To circle back to Farhan Zaidi’s point, if you believe – as the Mets apparently do – that there are zero women or people of color who are more qualified, deserving, and would do a better job than Van Wagenen, Porter, Scott, and Eppler then you’re being ignorant, prejudicial, and incompetent. Three of those four couldn’t have fared any worse. The other hasn’t even been on the job a week yet.
Of course, the Mets aren’t the only organization that allows ignorance and prejudicial thinking to affect their choices – they’re just the most recent and managed to bring it to “is this a parody?” level. Let’s be clear here: we all are victims of our own prejudicial thinking and ignorance in other aspects of business and life sometimes, myself included.
The Mets hire leaves the representation numbers the same: 38 percent of players but only 13 percent of GMs are people of color. That’s on you, MLB.
So by the power of Arte Moreno’s pencil-thin mustache, I command you: Learn from the Mets’ recent embarrassments, force the incompetent teams to stop hiring people who’ve already had opportunities and failed. Make sure these teams give everyone a fair shot, especially when that person may look different than decades of predecessors.
