The Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets organizations are linked together between a few players as well as front office executives. Former Brewers players that are currently on the Mets include Omar Narvaez, Daniel Vogelbach, Phil Bickford, and Trevor Gott. In the front office David Stearns is now at the helm as former GM Billy Eppler stepped down and manager Buck Showalter was let go.
One interesting rumor that connects these two organizations is that during the 2023 season Billy Eppler and Buck Showalter got into a feud regarding the playing time of Daniel Vogelbach. Billy Eppler acquired Daniel Vogelbach via trade in 2022 and Buck Showalter reportedly was reluctant to use him due to his ‘limited skill set’.
Former Milwaukee Brewers player Daniel Vogelbach sparked a feud between former New York Mets GM Billy Eppler and manager Buck Showalter.
According to a report from Mike Puma of the New York Post Buck Showalter decreased Daniel Vogelbach’s playing time after a poor start to the season and felt as if he was unable to play him more in the field due to his limited mobility. This led to Buck Showalter viewing the only viable way to play him as the designated hitter, but when he didn’t slug the ball particularly well or excel on getting base it became difficult to justify continued playing time.
When Daniel Vogelbach’s playing time started to decrease Buck Showalter met resistance from GM Billy Eppler. Mike Puma indicates that Billy Eppler was persistent with Daniel Vogelbach remaining in the starting lineup. With the Mets struggling to win games at that time it is possible that Billy Eppler wanted Daniel Vogelbach to get hot and boost his trade value, but after the deadline past he was still in the Mets organization.
Over the final two months of the season Daniel Vogelbach went on to have a great month of August, but in September Mark Vientos and Brett Baty returned to the club and ate into his playing time. He finished the season with a .233/.339/.404 slash line with 13 home runs and 48 RBI’s.
David Stearns, who previously traded for Daniel Vogelbach as a member of the Brewers organization, will now have to decide whether to tender him a contract for 2024 or not. It will be interesting to see what happens there and if they do how the Mets new manager utilizes him.
Follow me on Twitter @tylerkoerth. Follow us @WiSportsHeroics for more great sports content. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in Wisconsin sports, click here!. We cover the Milwaukee Brewers, Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Bucks, Wisconsin Badgers, and Wisconsin High School Sports. Additionally we provide the latest news coverage on the NFL, MLB, and NBA.
