The Mets hope the third time is the charm.
They announced the hiring of Billy Eppler as their new general manager on a four-year deal Thursday night and the former Angels GM — and Yankees assistant GM — becomes the third person hired to fill the spot by team president Sandy Alderson since Steve Cohen took over as owner a year ago.
Eppler, 46, got the job only after the Mets hired and fired Jared Porter and Zack Scott for off-the-field issues — and after whiffing on numerous other potential candidates — for both the GM and president of baseball operations jobs — since Scott was fired as acting GM following a DWI arrest.
Eppler was part of the Yankees’ front office under Brian Cashman from 2004-15 before he went to Anaheim in 2016.
“Over the past two decades, Billy has been a scout and an assistant GM. He’s also more than familiar with the New York Market. This uniquely qualifies him to lead our efforts going forward,” Alderson said in a statement released by the team. “He’s smart, he hustles and has a keen eye for identifying talent. He’s going to make us better. I am really pleased that we have someone of his caliber leading the Mets.”
The results weren’t good with the Angels, who finished below .500 in each of the five seasons Eppler was in charge before being fired after the 2020 season. He joined the William Morris agency in September.
While with the Angels, Eppler had some successful high-profile moves, most notably the signing of two-way star Shohei Ohtani, who Eppler began scouting while still with the Yankees. And Eppler signed Mike Trout to an extension.
But besides the deals with two of the game’s biggest stars, Eppler’s time with the Angels was mostly a disappointment.
A Justin Upton extension following the 2017 season has not panned out and Anthony Rendon is coming off a rough season just two years into the seven-year, $245 million he signed prior to 2020.
There was also the singing of Zack Cozart for three years and $38 million, which also didn’t work out.
And Eppler also gave Matt Harvey a one-year, $11 million contract in 2019 and Harvey had a 7.09 ERA in a dozen starts.
There were also issues away from the field, including the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs in June 2019 (at the team’s hotel in the Dallas/Fort Worth area) from a mix of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol, the opioids purportedly provided to him by an Angels media-relations official. The matter is still being litigated.
Under Eppler’s stewardship, the Angels hired former Mets manager Mickey Callaway as their pitching coach for the 2020 season after Joe Maddon became the manager at team owner Arte Moreno’s behest.
Callaway, fired from the Mets’ managing job after 2019, worked for one season at that position before the Athletic exposed numerous inappropriate messages sent to female journalists throughout his career as a coach and manager. Major League Baseball suspended Callaway through the 2022 campaign for sexual harassment.
And there was Bubba Harkins, the longtime visiting clubhouse attendant at Angel Stadium, who was fired after MLB started to crack down on illicit sticky substances that helped pitchers grip and spin the baseball. Harkins was known to provide a substance to both Angels and opposing pitchers and after he was fired by Eppler in March 2020, Harkins sued the league for defamation.
Now Eppler gets another shot in Queens, where he’ll be getting a late start to the offseason, as other teams have already begun making moves in advance of an expected lockout by the owners when the collective bargaining agreement expires at midnight on Dec. 1.
One of those teams — the Angels — signed Noah Syndergaard to a one-year, $21 million deal after the right-hander rejected the qualifying offer from the Mets — in part, according to The Post’s Joel Sherman, due to lack of communication from the Mets front office.
In terms of their roster, the Mets need help in the rotation and will no doubt look to add another bat — with Kris Bryant on the market.
The Mets also still need a manager after Luis Rojas was let go following the season.
“I’m so thankful to Steve and Sandy for what I consider an opportunity of a lifetime,” Eppler said in the statement. “We have a lot of work to do and will systematically begin to work towards our goal of building a perennial winner.”