Tom Brennan - The Painful Mets Saga of Yoenis Cespedes

HIS HIGH-RIDING METS CAREER WAS THROWN FROM ITS HORSE

It all started out so incredibly well. A Flushing marriage made in heaven.

His hitting immediately after joining the Mets in a late July 2015 trade, and through 2016, was phenomenal.

He felt almost like a hitting version of a young Doc Gooden:

In 2015 and 2016, 792 at bats, 39 doubles, 5 triples, 48 HRs, 130 RBIs.

The Mets had the most anemic hitting team in the MLB in 2015, until he arrived.  Thereafter, they had the most potent offense that season.

He started out clutch in the 2015 playoffs, and despite a late fade, he had 2 HRs and 8 RBIs in 54 ABs.

In 2016, he made the ASG for the Mets.

The chance for a dynasty after 2015 was cut short by the foolish failure to re-sign Daniel Murphy, who had back-to-back Hall of Fame caliber years with the rival Washington Nationals.  And, of course, by injuries to Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and, of course, Yoenis Cespedes himself, not to mention Travis d’Arnaud.

Yo missed 2017 with foot spurs and 2019 with spurs and a wild boar calamitous encounter on his ranch.  Some ranch, to have wild boars around.  It cost him a lot of money with his 4 year contract extension, during which he provided little and was frequently incapable of playing.

That wild boar saved the Mets a lot of cabbage.  The 4 year deal was $110 million from 2017-20, and his boar injury violated some clause in his contract about not being negligent.  So, it saved the Mets as follows (source: Spotrac)

• 2019 salary reduced to $14.M (injury settlement)
• 2020 salary reduced to $6M from $29.5M (injury settlement)
• 2020 salary escalates to $11M if he starts on the active list or IL for a non ankle/heel injury (It did not for 2021 - he cost them just $331,000 for that year.)

Anyway, in those 4 seasons, Cespedes played in just 127 games.  28 total HRs, and 75 RBIs.  He was still drastically overpaid, despite the salary scale-backs causing him a loss of income of about $37 million. (But think of the taxes he saved).

Bottom line: 

In terms of money flushed down the toilet, probably the Cespedes deal was twice as bad as the Frankie Montas 2 year fiasco. 

It was probably more on a par with the contract disaster named Robinson Cano.

Good luck, David Stearns, in rebuilding the roster for 2026. So much of doing so is a crap shoot.  It has been an interesting start to a remake so far, with Semien, Polanco, Weaver, and Williams.  No looking back. Let's WIN in 2026.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, folks.