Andy Martino of SNY reported on Tuesday that the New York Mets are still trying to trade Yoenis Cespedes and Jed Lowrie before Opening Day in order to clear their salaries.
In the case of Cespedes, moving his contract with the sole purpose of dumping his salary would be a mistake.
The outfielder is obviously far from a given to make a significant impact in 2020 considering he hasn’t played in a game since 2018 and is coming back from double heel surgery and ankle surgery.
His second surgery is the reason his contract might even be movable in the first place as the Mets and Cespedes agreed to an amended contract for the 2020 season in which Cespedes will have a $6 million base salary that will increase to $11 million if he makes the Opening Day roster. The deal has incentives that could make the total value of the deal $20 million.
One caveat to trading him, though, is that he gets a $2 million trade assignment bonus if traded to an American League team and $500K if he’s dealt to a National League team.
Some teams might even ask the Mets to cover that which could eliminate some of the incentives of dealing Cespedes in the first place.
It’s also likely that only an American League team would want to trade for him anyway as it is very unclear if he’ll be able to play the field in 2020 while his offense probably isn’t as much of a concern. Having the luxury of a DH spot mitigates the risk if he’s unable to play left field at even an average level.
So if he’s dealt to an AL team, the Mets would possibly have to spend $2 million just to get rid of his salary. If he isn’t ready for Opening Day, that would be a third of his guaranteed salary.
Is that really worth it to trade him for a return of maybe a low-level prospect?
At the end of the day, it isn’t and he honestly provides more value playing for the Mets than he would for any other franchise this upcoming season.
If he’s even anything close to the player he was in 2018 when healthy (121 wRC+ over 38 games), the 34-year-old could be a vital cog in the middle of the Mets’ lineup.
At $6 or $11 million guaranteed, that would be a bargain for the Mets even if he doesn’t play every day, which he likely wouldn’t, at least early on. Cespedes has also begun running already which is a good sign he could be ready to start the season with the club.
Obviously, if another team shows strong interest in Cespedes and is willing to offer a solid piece that could help the Mets, they should jump at it given that there are a lot of hurdles that the right-handed slugger will have to overcome to become a force to be reckoned with again.
However, Martino did add that the Mets have so far struggled to find takers which makes that scenario appear extremely unlikely to emerge. If that is the case, Yoenis Cespedes should get to start the season with the Mets.
