Mets GM believes in Buck Showalter, team's ability to turn things around

No manager in baseball has a hotter seat than the New York Mets' Buck Showalter. 

The team is badly underachieving, his in-game decisions and bullpen usage are infuriating fans and the season is in danger of slipping away entirely. Despite all of that, the organization continues to stand behind him and on Tuesday general manager Billy Eppler gave Showalter another vote of confidence.

"Buck's had a good amount of adversity heaped his way," said Eppler. "I think Buck's handled that adversity and he's the guy to get us back on track."

He went on to say that he believes in the track record of the roster and that they can play at the win percentage needed to get back into the playoff race. He also made sure to point out that the team still has a bit of time ahead of them before the trade deadline for them to change the narrative of the season.

Along with Eppler's comments on Tuesday, team owner Steve Cohen announced he is going to be meeting with the media on Wednesday to discuss the state of the team.

Cohen also previously said that he is not in a rush to make dramatic changes to the roster or his staff despite the team's struggles.  

The problem for the Mets is that it is getting late very early, and they have a pretty steep mountain to climb to get back into the playoff picture. They are eight games under .500 entering play on Tuesday, are already 16 games back of the first-place Atlanta Braves in the National League East and eight games out of a Wild Card spot. The only teams with a worse record in the National League are St. Louis, Colorado and Washington.

The situation is getting pretty dire. 

Injuries have certainly played a role in the Mets' struggles, with Pete Alonso missing significant time and Edwin Diaz missing the entire season. The latter has put a huge toll on the remaining bullpen arms and taken away an elite closer. But this is still a team with a more than $300 million payroll and it should be better than this. The Mets might not be in a hurry to make changes right now in-season, but if this season does not turn around you can be certain changes will be coming in the winter.