Peter Hyatt - 2017 Yoenis Cespdes: El Potentate Dictates When El Potentate Plays

Yoenis Cespedes: yet another leg injury and more push back against his employer:

"Of course I’m going to work hard and try to be back as soon as I can,” Cespedes said. “But I am not going to push myself to come back if I am not 100 percent.”

Now you know.  

Surprise, surprise, guess who is in control. 

"Of course" is used when one wishes to be believed without having to state it.  His need to state it comes from the acrimonious history between him and his employer, Sandy Alderson and the New York Mets 

The word "but" is used to refute and/or minimize that which preceded it. He will, without question ("of course") try to be back soon "but", with the words following "but" being the most important to him.  

In other words, we may not see the self ordained "El Potentate" back again this year, unless he says so, as internal groans in management and the decision to sign El Headcase become more acute. 

Need to State the Unnecessary 

He needs to make this statement when it is, within baseball, unnecessary. 

1.  Would anyone accuse him of not working as hard as he could to get back as soon as he could?
2.  Why the need to rebut this?

It is a strong statement based upon the conflict between himself and his employer.  

As the culture of major league baseball continues to fall prey to the ostentatiousness of ESPN's highlight reel competition, expect other posing and non hustle to produce injuries such as Phil Mushnick of the NY Post described recently for GianCarlo ("Mike") Stanton and Yoenis Cespedes.

This is where the player admires his hit and fails to run in a timely manner, only to have to turn up the speed, unnaturally, leading to not only an injury, but millions of dollars of revenue lost by the employer, as the star now sits out. 

The employer paying an employee this kind of money comes with expectations.  

Early in the ill fated 2017 season, Cespedes not only injured himself in this manner (self inflicted) but he refused to get on the field when and where he was told to. 

It reached a head when the very frustrated Sandy Alderson finally went public in an attempt to get Cespdes in rehab games announcing "no substantial injury" was found, "not even swelling" in the MRI.  

In the waning days of Spring Training, a baseball insider told me that should Cespedes slump, he may claim injury, or if he is injured, he will "milk it" for however long he wants to. 

It was worse than predicted. 

Not only did the egotistical hypertrophy leg presses set him up for injury, and his star-gazing poses combine with his refusal to hustle at certain moments in the game, he refused to rehab according to the Mets' (and their medical staff) recommendations. Protocol was set up:
x number of at bats;
x number of innings;
x number of outfield and baserunning play:

you know, exactly as you would think it would be.  

It gets worse. 

When he finally returned, 

Terry Collins could not submit a line up to MLB until "El Potentate" made his final decision on whether he would be playing today or not. 

I do not know how much influence Cespedes had on what part of the line up he would be in (it may be that the employer wanted him fourth, protecting the 3rd spot, which Conforto was being groomed for), but El Potentate wanted to be protected, instead. 

I also do not know with certainty just how much Cespedes' pouting influenced the line up, but it did have some influence on two particular "buddies" playing time:  Reyes and Cabrerra, which came to a somewhat quiet ending when Cabrera went public with his hissy fit.  (thus far, no team has offered even a used Louisville Slugger bat for the toxic egotist)

Suffice to say the New York Mets did attempt to unload the huge albatross of a contract, and there were rumors that they would have entertained various offers to eat a good portion of the contract for Cespedes. 

There were no serious offers. 

When was this in high discussion?

Right when Cespedes issued his Terry Collins insult and his warm-fuzzy recollection of his time in Oakland, of which Oakland's collective memory does not share.  

When Mushnick complains about the loss of value of the contract of Cespedes, he is not referring to naturally occurring injuries of which teams pay lots of money for insurance over. 

He is referring to the insidiously contagious attitude that Cespedes has brought to the New York Mets, including its impact upon young players (Syndergaard, Gselleman) and those with pre existing ego conditions (Harvey) and upon a team who celebrated less than mediocre play. 

Sometimes Cespedes showed up and he shined. 

Sometimes Cespedes phoned it in. 

A few times, his arrogant dismissal cost the Mets serious money. 

But it is his "El Potentate", me-first bullying of the leadership dearth within the Mets that Cespedes exploited. 

The Mets have no one to blame but themselves. 

Not only did they know what they were getting when they signed him, but they failed to hold him to any meaningful standard in spite of a very generous paycheck. 

If the 2018 Mets are going to have a chance, it is either going to be without Yoenis Cespedes, or,

heaven forbid,

they will have to stand up to him and let him know who is running the show.  If you think it will be Terry Collins, just listen to what Collins said August 20th, when, as the Post described it, "Cespedes could not be bothered" to go after a pop up that Statcast said had a "99% probability" of being caught.  It was a two base error and Collins wanted the media to know just how "tough" a manager he is.  He should have held his player accountable; not for dropping the ball, that happens, but for refusing to hustle over.  The egotistically satisfying disinterest thing is getting old in baseball and is worse on losing teams.  

Leadership Test

What do you do (or say) to a player who refuses to hustle?

1.  Gil Hodges like removal of said player to send signal to entire ball club that this will not be tolerated?
2.  Demand said player hustle?
3.  Bench said player?

or, do you take your leadership lesson from Terry Collins?

His methodology of leadership is:

1.  Praise offender
2.  Excuse offender
3.  Blame someone else 

Let's let Collins speak for himself: 

“This guy is probably as good a left fielder as there is, he’s got a Gold Glove to show for it, everybody makes mistakes,’’ Collins said.

This sounds weak because it is weak.  It praised Cespedes and it also, psychologically, put Cespedes in with "everyone" else.  This works really well...

in kindergarten classes where we wish to encourage children to do better. 

Challenged by the reporter, Collins said his message to play the game right, and that includes defense, “has come across perfectly clear and they understand it. If plays aren’t made you got to pitch around it once in a while,” the embattled manager said. “They don’t stop trying to make plays when you hang sliders, so you got to keep pitching.’’

1.  If it was "clear", no need for "perfectly" to be added.  

2.  If it was "perfectly clear", there is no need to say "they understood it."

3.  Who is "they"?  Cespedes refused to run to the ball.  

4.  He put the responsibility on pitchers, moving it away from Cespedes. 

No, Terry Collins, if back next year, will not be the leader to bring Cespedes to hustle and put team results first. 

The ball club is infected with "Cespeditis" disease.  It is essentially "me first" with childish pouting, brooding and ultimately controlling. 

If we see the sparkling enthusiasm of Amed Rosario begin to mimic the dark "too cool" disinterest of Yoenis Cespedes, or if we see the reserved Dom Smith suddenly begin to dance like Reyes while celebrating mediocrity being 10 games under .500, I think one of us will likely go Elvis on the big screen.