Billy Eppler resigned as Mets general manager Thursday amid an ongoing Major League Baseball investigation into alleged improper uses of the injured list during this season, sources said.
The Post answers some questions about what exactly happened and what could happen next:
What did Eppler allegedly do?
The league is investigating, according to sources, whether the Mets employed the so-called phantom injured list. Fabricating an injury for a healthy player can be a competitive advantage. A team with a full active roster could make up an injury that enables a player to move to the injured list, essentially storing a player without minor league options rather than potentially allowing other teams to claim him if he is exposed to waivers. The healthy player on the IL then could await another player’s actual injury or another player being optioned to the minors and replace that player on the active roster.
Doesn’t everybody do that?
It has been a long-whispered-about practice that rarely is scrutinized. Ross Stripling, a Giants pitcher, told reporters last month he was on the “phantom IL” as he eagerly awaited an activation. (Giants boss Farhan Zaidi disputed Stripling’s characterization.) Teams — and often players — can be incentivized to use the phantom IL, which allows the team to continue employing the player and allows the player — often on the fringe of the roster — to gain service time and a major league salary while on the injured list.
Were the Mets an egregious example?
Not numerically at least. The Mets used the injured list 28 times this season, which tied for 16th-most in the majors. The Giants (46), Angels (42) and Twins (39) led the way.
By sheer number of days lost to the injured list, the Mets (1,610) ranked 14th. The Dodgers (2,465), Angels (2,346) and Yankees (2,158) were tops.
So why is Eppler being investigated?
Because an anonymous letter tipped off MLB about alleged IL abuses with Eppler in charge of the Mets, according to a source. A source told The Post’s Joel Sherman that MLB plans to interview multiple Mets employees as part of the investigation. If Eppler went to extremes as part of manipulating the injured list, the league wants to find out.
Which IL stints are being investigated?
We all can privately guess, but the league is not commenting on the substance of the investigation.
Has this ever happened before?
MLB has looked into improper IL usage and whether IL stints have complied with the rules. But it is not believed any executive had faced discipline (at least publicly known) or resigned because of improper IL usage. Eppler would be the first.
This is really what brought down the Mets’ GM?
Plenty within the league share this confusion, incredulity or perhaps skepticism.
“There must be more to this,” one rival executive said.
“Is that really the reason?” another rival exec offered.
Eppler’s resignation allowed the new David Stearns regime to proceed without an employee under an ongoing MLB investigation. There are still a lot of questions to answer, but it is possible Eppler, whose power within the organization had just been minimized anyway, stepped aside and allowed a cloud to leave the organization.
“I wanted David to have a clean slate and that meant me stepping down,” Eppler said in a statement released by the Mets. “I hope for nothing but the best for the entire Mets organization.”
Will there be a new GM hired soon?
It is possible, though Stearns already has a manager to hire and an organization to learn and to run. He could essentially serve as his own GM for the time being, but it is probably too early to know for sure.
— Additional reporting by Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman
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