The Mets are freefalling, and Tiki Barber is putting the onus on Buck Showalter to call for the necessary improvements.
Tiki doesn't see Billy Eppler as a proven winner, but Showalter has decades of experience as a manager, and says it's on him to go to Eppler and campaign for the team's thriving prospects to be called up to inject new blood into a lifeless lineup.
If that doesn't happen, and the Mets are still scuffling by summer, Tiki says the Mets would be in their right to fire Showalter.
"His biggest fault is that he's not screaming from the mountaintops, the way we are, to bring the best players in the organization up," Tiki said. "Forget service time, contracts.
"If he doesn't start doing that, and this team slides to three, four, eight games under .500 before we get close to the All-Star break, he's gonna get fired. And it would be justified. It would be justified if he got fired if this team keeps sliding, and he doesn't start screaming at Billy Eppler, 'Give me talent.'"
Tiki wants to see Showalter publicly campaign for Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio to get the call to the majors and replace some of the struggling veterans in the lineup. He is convinced Showalter is capable of making that happen, so if he doesn't, it would be negligible to the point where a firing would be justified.
"If you are looking at the Mets and saying 'What's gonna make this team better?'" Tiki said. "Is it Eppler's decisions, or is it Buck forcing Eppler to make those decisions? To me, it's the latter, and it's not happening."
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