Reacting to the New York Post report of Billy Eppler forcing Buck Showalter to play Daniel Vogelbach, C-Mac couldn’t believe the former Mets manager was put in such a situation, when Vogelbach was struggling to produce anything of value through the first half of the season.
“Why would you hire Buck Showalter, and then insist on Daniel Vogelbach and not allow Buck to do what he wants with the lineup?” C-Mac said. “I understand in his previous life, Vogelbach had some good numbers against right-handed pitching, but he wasn’t good at all this season…that is unacceptable as a DH, when you could be using that position much better, as Buck apparently wanted to do.
“Billy Eppler has got some nerve, knowing he’s a placeholder for David Stearns. We all knew it. I’m not sure why he’s keeping his job when Buck Showalter was shown the door.”
Showalter wanted to use the DH spot as a way to give everyday players the occasional half day off, while Eppler pushed for Vogelbach, who he acquired prior to the 2022 trade deadline, to be a fixture in the lineup. Given Vogelbach’s absence of defensive value, and his struggling bat through much of the season, C-Mac can’t understand that insistence from the GM.
“It’s frustrating as hell to think that you brought in Buck Showalter,” C-Mac said. “And then fought him tooth and nail and prevented him from doing a lineup he wanted because of Daniel Vogelbach.”