At this point in time, there is no telling how many games the New York Mets will get to play in 2020. With the outbreak of the coronavirus, Opening Day may be pushed back into June, if not later.

When trying to find a silver lining to this unfortunate delay, the one place everyone can look is towards the injured list and whether some players can now find themselves ready for the start of regular season.

In regards to the New York Mets, Michael Conforto’s mild oblique strain is suddenly a thing of the past and long-time injured players such as Yoenis Cespedes and Jed Lowrie now have a few more months to rehab.

Cespedes is the player that can make the most of this unfortunate situation, as he was getting close to returning to games prior to Major League Baseball’s shutdown. With this extended layoff, there is no reason to believe Cespedes won’t be 100% by Opening Day.

Having Cespedes healthy at the start of the season will go a long way for the Mets and their pursuit of winning the NL East for the first time since 2015. Cespedes owns a .282/.346/.543 slash line across his tenure with the Mets. If New York gets anything close to that level of production from the 34-year-old, they will be in great shape.

While the season being postponed is a blessing in disguise for Cespedes to get healthy, it is also a curse for him financially.

When the Mets restructured Cespedes’ contract this offseason, they structured it in a way that heavily incentives him to get as many plate appearances as possible.

Once Cespedes makes the active roster, his salary will become guaranteed at $11 million. He then stands to gain an extra $9 million based on plate appearances: $250,000 each for 200, 250 and 275; $500,000 apiece for 300, 350, 375 and 400; $750,000 each for 425, 450 and 475; and $1 million apiece for 525, 550, 575 and 650.

There is a really good chance that we see at least 50 games shaved from the 2020 schedule. If that is what happens, best case scenario for Cespedes would be to maybe get 400 plate appearances.

Suddenly of the $9 million in potential incentives, Cespedes could miss out on the opportunity to secure two-thirds of that money even if he proves capable of playing everyday.

The one way that Cespedes can really take advantage of this shortened-season is to return completely healthy and dominate to the point where he can cash in on another big contract when he becomes a free agent this winter.