There will be no Yoenis Cespedes type player coming this year to propel the Mets into the postseason. No mid-season spark to carry the offense to the promised land. Can Cespedes repeat his 2015 second half to propel the team to the playoffs once again.
The Yo Show has put up nice numbers this season, hitting to a .290/.370/.565 slash line. He has hit 21 homers to go along with 56 RBI and has showed that last year was not so much a fluke as many thought. Cespedes has battled through numerous nagging injuries this year, most recently a strained quad that has relegated him to only being able to man left-field.
Manager, Terry Collins believes his star outfielder is getting ready to hopefully turn on the jets and begin to carry this team as they march towards a possible playoff birth.
“I’m hoping this homestand, he gets it really going because he’s a guy that cannot only carry a team, but he makes everybody else start to come alive when he’s swinging the bat good,” Collins said. “I don’t mean to put all this pressure on Ces, but in one year, he’s been a force in our lineup.” (Newsday)
The pressure though is on Cespedes, a lineup that has struggled to produce runs throughout the season will rely on their star slugger to get them where they need to be. There is no calvary this year as Mets GM, Sandy Alderson has pointed out.
“Our goal is to get maximum performance out of Ces as well as the rest of the team,” Alderson said. “I think you have to look at, for example, his shift to leftfield and the need to put somebody like [Michael] Conforto in center, perhaps.”
You need to look at that, again, on a net basis. Are we better off at the two positions given some of the physical limitations that Yoenis faces right now.”
In the second half of last season, Cespedes hit 22 homers with 54 RBI and had an incredible .594 slugging percentage. This team will yet again hope for numbers similar to this as they enter the final two months of the regular season. Currently the team finds themselves five games back from the NL East lead as well as in a virtual tie with the Miami Marlins for the second Wild-Card spot.
