Reese Kaplan -- Is It Time To Cut Your Losses?

It’s always interesting to see the miscellaneous feedback that emanates from Spring Training which often contradicts what you’ve heard or read elsewhere.  Some of it is the usual, “Player X is hitting line drives no matter who pitches” or “Player Y looked foolish as the breaking pitch buckled his knees.”  Those types of lines are expected year after year with various players taking the roles of A and B. 

This year the unexpected and contradictory stories are a bit more specific with 2019’s walking wounded squad.  Specifically, we all saw many videos of the enlarged but seemingly healthy Yoenis Cespedes demonstrating what he’s capable of doing with the bat in his hands (and even occasionally running to prove he can).  Everyone started up their hypothetical “what if” conversations regarding the roster conundrum should Cespedes surprisingly break camp with the club.  After all, his contract restructuring has major financial incentives for Cespedes personally should he fly north at the end of Spring Training.

Then there was the seemingly horrific news of Jed Lowrie showing up to camp wearing a brace that looked as if he was recovering from some kind of skiing accident, extending from his thigh to his calf.  After having missed all of 2019 except for 7 unproductive pinch hitting appearances in September, this revelation had everyone firing their anti-Brodie Van Wagenen shots for having squandered $20 million on a guy not even capable of taking the field.

Imagine everyone’s surprise come Tuesday to hear from the General Manager contradicting both of these notions.  From Brodie Van Wagenen comes the announcement that Jed Lowrie is fit to play but not to count on Yoenis Cespedes just yet. 

Huh?

The cynic in most of us would think that since it was Van Wagenen who made the curious decision to ink the elder statesman in Lowrie and got nothing in return, he’s going to be painting as rosy a picture as possible to help justify his now-apparently poor decision making. 

Conversely, Van Wagenen had no input whatsoever on Sandy Alderson’s blunder bidding against himself on Yoenis Cespedes, so the only face he can save here is to delay Yo’s progress to the big club in order to save payroll dollars and keeping the already crowded outfield from becoming even more difficult to manage.  After all, if Cespedes comes north and you’re paying him the major bucks, that would mean guys like JD Davis and/or Brandon Nimmo would have to sit to make room for him. 

There are some folks who maintain that other clubs are actually actively soliciting a deal for Yoenis Cespedes.  If that was indeed true, you would think the Mets would be hell bent on making sure he plays as soon as possible in order to increase the likelihood of it happening.  As it is, a Cespedes trade would kind of be like the old “To get Mike Hampton you have to take Derek Bell, too” transaction prior to the 2000 season.  If the Mets want someone to pay full bore for Cespedes, expect to see Andres Gimenez, Ronny Mauricio, Thomas Szapucki or someone of that ilk attached to the deal.   

As the season opens, there is really no room for Jed Lowrie with Luis Guillorme being a more gifted defender and significantly less expensive.  Similarly, if they are serious about converting both JD Davis and Dom Smith to left field, Michael Conforto stays in right field, then they need a place to play Brandon Nimmo.  Where does Yo go?  I personally think in both cases they have, through health and salary, played themselves out of future plans for the Mets and the club would benefit from any minor league fodder their salary relief could bring.