Where do the Mets go from here? Buck Showalter, Billy Eppler debrief on 2022 season

Buck Showalter's calendar in his office has already turned toward February.

That will be the next time that any of the New York Mets will get back on the mound in a team setting when pitcher and catchers report for spring training.

Meanwhile, Billy Eppler has turned his attention toward making sure the team can sustain the same level success that it achieved, at least during the 2022 regular season when the Mets captured more than 100 wins for the fourth time in franchise history.

The Mets manager and general manager met with the media on Friday morning at Citi Field to assess how the 2022 season ended, and look toward the team's journey through a busy offseason, which includes several notable free agents, including Jacob deGrom, Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo.

"It’s pretty impressive what ownership and front office have done, and I think our fans should take great confidence in that because I know one thing, we’ll be grinding every second of the way.," Showalter said. "It started about two or three hours after it was over, quite frankly, because you got to move on. This baseball world flies in the offseason."

Showalter and Eppler both said they were proud of the way the team performed throughout the season but also unsatisfied with the way it ultimately ended with a loss to the Padres in the NL Wild Card series.

Here is what else they had to say:

Can they keep Jacob deGrom, Edwin Diaz, Brandon Nimmo?

Next season, the Mets could look entirely different, with 13 major free agents hitting the market or up for options.

Leading those candidates is two-time Cy Young winner deGrom, who voiced his intentions to forgo the final year of his five-year, $137.5 million contract in the offseason. Eppler said the Mets ace understands where the team stands on his future.

"He knows how we feel. I know how he feels. It's a good conversation," Eppler said. "We had a good amount of dialogue, he and I, over the course of this season. I think we have a sense of what makes maybe the other one tick. I think things are positive and the relationship’s positive and we'll see where it ultimately goes."

Additionally, the Mets will have to worry about losing the top closer in baseball in Diaz and one of the game's leading center fielders and leadoff men in Nimmo. Eppler said the team is not weighing one of those players over the next.

"We’ll have conversations with all three. It's not like a two-way street. It's a multi-party endeavor now," Eppler said. "I will get a sense of understanding their expectations, and they'll get a sense of understanding ours, and we'll see if something can be executed. It’s talking to all three. It's not prioritizing one versus the other."

With the future of Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker along with several other bullpen arms also in question, Eppler said that the team may look toward free agency to fill in some of the gaps that pop up with the pitching staff.

"We saw (Tylor) Megill and (David) Peterson take some steps forward and some of the younger relievers come onto the scene, which is probably going to lend itself to more runway for that group," Eppler said. "And then continue to look into free agency and the trade market to supplement that. I think it's pretty safe to say we're gonna the hit the market to fill that out because it can't be fille  out entirely from internal candidates."

What does Billy Eppler look at while building a lineup?

Eppler called it a recipe that he has had grown used to over his career trajectory, which spans stops with the Yankees, Angels, and now the Mets.

This season, the Mets were second in MLB with a team on-base percentage of .332 and tied for fifth in runs. Throughout the season, the team's mantra was "pass the baton." And while that identity did not sustain the Mets in a best-of-three series, it seems to be the guiding principle for how Eppler will build the team's lineup moving forward.

"I feel really good one through nine being able to kind of link those hitters together and grind at-bats and kind of everybody here counts and everybody here has a role," Eppler said. "The offense really took a hold of that and really ran with that and demonstrated it because I can point out at any single hitter a game where they contributed the most to our win probability, not to get mathy, but at-bats that were big and at-bats that turned the game in our favor and that was the mark of a good team."

The Mets were right in the middle of the pack in home runs - 15th in MLB - but adding another power bat will not necessarily be an emphasis unless it makes sense.

"If it's in the cards and it can happen, that's one way to do it," Eppler said. "But still honoring getting on base is an important aspect. If somebody presents themselves and there's enough daylight on that acquisition that we can pull it down, you have to be open to that. I'm a fan of base percentage. I'm a fan of OPS in kind of simple terms."

Any regrets? And what about the future?

One of the words Eppler used throughout the press conference was "sustainability."

Both Showalter and Eppler have only experienced more than 100 wins twice apiece during their careers. The Mets have no signs on letting up, and sustaining their 2022 success for years to come is the mission of the two, along with owner Steve Cohen.

"Steve's continued to say I'll support this cause financially and we can use some money to bridge ultimately where we want to take this place, which again is to that sustainability where we're winning year in and year out," Eppler said. "As we sit here today, there's gonna be a lot of work to do this wintertime.

"There’s some work to do and we have to just continue this build and continue this climb and make sure we just do everything in service to that blueprint."Eppler said he did not have any regrets with a meager trade deadline that including bringing in Daniel Vogelbach, Tyler Naquin, Darin Ruf and Mychal Givens, mostly because he believed the team upgraded without leveraging future assets.

"I had a process, had a good group of people in the room, good group of people that we were consulting with, had the tools that we needed to have, made the acquisitions that we made," Eppler said. "I think from Vogelbach’s perspective, it was pretty good. I don't know. I'd be curious if you can point out somebody that outhit him that was that was traded or how many you could if you could, or if the guys that weren't traded, if they outhit him from that point forward. We did it without robbing the future in a significant way."

Fans had a chance to catch of glimpse of several of the Mets' top prospects down the stretch, including Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Francisco Alvarez, as well

"Some of it was born out of necessity because of some circumstances that happened with our 26- or 28- player roster at that moment in time," Eppler said. "I know there's some takeaways for them as well as for us. I'm very excited that they're here. I think they're going to be a big part of our future and I look forward to seeing them in spring training and watching them compete for jobs."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Mets offseason: Buck Showalter, Billy Eppler debrief on 2022 season