The Mets Bolster Their Offense With Three Free Agents
The New York Times
With Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha, the run-starved Mets addressed their biggest need while adding some defensive versatility.
In Billy Eppler’s last general manager job, with the Los Angeles Angels, his roster had a few big stars with exorbitant contracts, but not much else. The Angels collapsed under that lopsided structure, and a lack of depth has also stymied his new team, the Mets.
“Personally, that’s one of my bigger takeaways over the last 10 years in baseball, is that importance of depth,” Eppler said recently, when the Mets introduced him as their new general manager. “I also suffered similarly, at times, when that was tested and you didn’t have places to turn to. And it’s just, frankly, not easy to go execute a trade.”
The Mets avoided the trade market on Friday in adding the kind of depth Eppler wants. The team agreed to contract terms with three free agents: center fielder Starling Marte, outfielder/first baseman Mark Canha and infielder Eduardo Escobar. The deals were confirmed by a baseball official who was granted anonymity because the players must pass physicals to make the agreements official.
