Yoenis Cespedes, in meeting the media for the first time this season made a big statement. This happened to be the first time he spoke to the press since he was acquired in 2015 and he did so in English.

But, what he said regarding 2015 was the more noteworthy topic.

“This team is way better than the team we had in 2015.”

“This year, we had some players that got hurt in Spring Training. And right now, everybody is healthy except (Michael) Conforto. He’s gonna miss I think like five games. So that’s why I say this team is the best team I’ve been around so far.”

Well, for starters, the simplest thing to notice in that is the tidbit about Michael Conforto. Now, he might have just been guessing with that, but he likely has a good idea when he’s returning. If he is actually returning in five games, that would mean Conforto would be with the team in Washington to face the Nationals for the first time this year.

The more bold point to be noticed is the comparison to the 2015 Mets team that made the World Series. To be clear, from Cespedes’ view, he is talking about the roster for only the second half of that season, as the first half lineup was one of the worst in baseball.

However, he might actually be right. The Mets lineup, even after the deadline, is better now than it was at that point.

The lineup has improved drastically since then with Michael Conforto (as an everyday budding star), Asdrubal Cabrera, Amed Rosario, Todd Frazier, and Jay Bruce being major contributors in the lineup.

Their bench is even, arguably better as they will add Brandon Nimmo (once Conforto returns) and Jose Reyes to a bench that included Kevin Plawecki, Wilmer Flores, and Juan Lagares back in 2015.

Meanwhile, in 2015, they had Conforto, Plawecki, Lagares, Flores, Kirk Nieuwenhuis , Kelly Johnson, and Juan Uribe at various points.

The rotation might actually be better as well, as the team has more depth now than they did back then. In 2015, they had Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Bartolo Colon in the rotation, with Jon Niese moving to the bullpen.

Now, they have Syndergaard, deGrom, Matz, Harvey, and Lugo to start the season, with Jason Vargas returning soon, Robert Gsellman in the bullpen, and Zack Wheeler, who was hurt in 2015, sitting in Triple-A.

The question with that, obviously, is how effective this group will be, as Harvey was his dominant self in 2015 and Matz was a top prospect at the time.

The bullpen, though is better now than it was back then as well as Lugo and Gsellman should both be in the bullpen in the coming weeks to go along with Jacob Rhame, Paul Sewald, Anthony Swarzak, Jerry Blevins (missed most of the 2015 season with a fractured forearm), AJ Ramos, and Jeurys Familia.

Back then, the Mets finished the year with Addison Reed, Tyler Clippard, Eric O’Flaherty, Sean Gilmartin, Jonathon Niese, Hansel Robles, and Familia in the bullpen.

Cespedes might prove to be right, but they have to go out there and put it all together like the 2015 team did.

The team just made their statement, now they are going to have to go out on the field and back it up.