According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, the Mets will be one of many teams that will be pushing to sign free agent Yoenis Cespedes beginning in November.
While Mets people won’t discuss it publicly, writes Heyman, word is they are expected to make a serious play for Cespedes, whose willingness to play center field has been a huge plus, not to mention all the well-timed bombs he’s hitting.
“The reasons they’re not talking about their intentions are two-fold; they don’t want to set fans up for a potential disappointment, and they don’t want to detract from what’s transpiring on the field, which is nothing short of special.”
Heyman believes the Giants, Rangers, Mariners, Phillies, Angels, Cubs, and Yankees will be among the teams with serious interest in Cespedes, who will be the premier outfielder available this Winter.
It may take at least $150 million and likely more to sign Cespedes this winter, and given the way the Wilpons have done business over the past ten years, it seems very unlikely to me that the Mets will do anything more than put up a good pretense and ultimately retreat to the usual “we tried” white flag.
In fact, if you heard the game broadcast and then the post game on SNY Wednesday night, the topic was broached and the crew highlighted all the negatives about signing Cespedes.
Last night when Cespedes swung and didn’t run to first, Gary Cohen said “what an embarrassment.” The guy was in pain.
Nelson Figueroa laughed when asked by Gary Apple if the Mets had any chance at signing him. Then went into him “not always hustling” and “not a team philosophy kind of hitter.”
Also, on SNY MetsBlog this afternoon, Matt Cerrone writes ” I don’t know that he’ll be worth paying, say, $25 million a season when he’s 34-years-old. Do you?”
Back when Nelson Doubleday was running things, he overruled the Wilpons and signed Mike Piazza. At the time the Wilpon and their cronies were saying the same things as you are hearing now about Cespedes.
If Cespedes got you into the postseason during the first five years of his likely seven year deal, would you care that much about his last two years? Did you care about Piazza’s last two years and wish we had never signed him? Of course not.
Plus Cespedes is clearly a much more athletic specimen than Piazza ever was.
But the point is that when the Jeff Wilpon paid brigade is downplaying and shedding negative light on any free agent including our own, you may as just well kiss any chance of signing them out the window. And Cespedes is no different… Sad to say…
