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Major League Baseball banned former New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler for one year earlier in February, noting that he violated injured list rules.
And apparently, it was someone within the Mets who informed MLB of those practices.
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, “Eppler’s injury-related records were turned in by a whistleblower, believed to be a Mets employee, and while exaggerating or even faking injuries to keep them from leaving is a prevalent practice, the evidence doesn’t usually wind up on Rob Manfred’s desk.”
In its statement announcing the year-long suspension, the league said Eppler was guilty of “improper use of injured list placements, including the deliberate fabrication of injuries; and the associated submission of documentation for the purposes of securing multiple improper Injured List placements during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.”
Heyman noted that Eppler readily owned up to some practices when confronted by Major League Baseball, in part because he felt it was common practice around the sport.
Former New York Mets pitcher Tommy Hunter was certainly surprised by the punishment.
“It’s crazy Billy got singled out,” he told the New York Post’s Andrew Battifarano earlier in February. “It’s kind of mind-blowing. I had multiple back [issues] and no one from MLB talked to me. I don’t know what their strategy was. It’s no secret what goes on [with the phantom IL], so to go after one person seems unfair. I feel bad for Billy. … He didn’t do anything different than any other GM I’ve been around.”
Eppler, 48, stepped down in October, saying at the time he wanted new president of baseball operations David Stearns to have a “clean slate” running the team. Not long after, reports of the MLB investigation into the team’s improper use of the injured list came to light.
Per reports, Eppler told the Mets he didn’t want to be a distraction, leading to his decision to walk away from the organization. The team decided to not hire a new general manager to replace him this offseason.
“We’ve got enough going on right now,” Stearns told reporters in November. “I think we’ve got a front office grouping that is working well together, we’re learning each other and frankly that’s a process that requires immense time, and so we’ll tackle that at a different point.”
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