It didn’t take long for many of the Mets players to weigh in on the return of Yoenis Cespedes, who was resoundingly praised and lauded by his teammates this weekend at various events and social media.
Hey Cespy, You need a roommate? I'm really clean but don't cook very well. #mymancrushisback!!!#bestfriendsforever
— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) January 23, 2016
While the Baseball Writers Association of America Awards Banquet was canceled on Saturday night because of the snowstorm, they did manage to hold a toned-down awards ceremony for those who could attend.
Kris Bryant and Carlos Correa collected their Rookie of the Year awards, while Josh Donaldson, Bryce Harper, Dallas Keuchel and Jake Arrieta were on hand for their hardware as well.
Sandy Alderson stole the show as always and took some jabs at Scott Boras while also poking some fun at Matt Harvey, telling the crowd he lived all the way out in SoHo and there were no flights out of the Greenwich Village Airport due to the blizzard. You can check out some great videos from Sandy, Terry Collins and a bunch of Mets players in attendance here on MLB.com.
Here’s what Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz and Curtis Granderson had to say about Yoenis Cespedes last night:
“You hear him get an offer somewhere else, and it’s a team you might have to play a lot, you don’t really want to face a guy like that all the time,” deGrom said. “So we’re definitely excited to have him back on our team. In the little bit of time we had him, he was impressive. So a full season is going to be a lot of fun.”
“He was so clutch,” Matz said. “I definitely think he’s intimidating. He’s a long-ball threat but at the same time he’ll get the job done and hit the ball the other way. As a pitcher, I’d be intimidated.”
“We got a chance to experience him for 2 1/2 months last year and he did some amazing things for us,” Granderson added. “I know the city is excited to have him back and even if he could do just half of what he did last year it would definitely be a very big thing for us.”
Dan Martin of the New York Post reached out to David Wright on Saturday and the Mets captain couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for having Cespedes back.
“I liked the baseball moves we made earlier, but this is a bigger splash,” Wright said. “Yoenis is a difference-maker. You saw it after the trade at the deadline. He immediately started to carry our offense. Even though he was only around us for a short time, he had a connection with the city, the team and the fans and I’m glad for them.”
“Obviously, he genuinely wanted to come back and that’s the kind of guy you want to take the field with, someone who is willing to compromise,” Wright said. “I do know he made a point to his representatives to compromise and the team did, too.”
You could always count on David Wright to say and do the right things.
And finally, let’s give it up for Alejandro De Aza, who had the following to say on Facebook after the Cespedes signing essentially knocked him out of the starting lineup and landed him on the bench.
“Looking forward to playing alongside Yoenis Cespedes, Curtis Granderson, Juan Lagares, Michael Conforto and the rest of my new Met teammates. Focus is not on individual accomplishments, it’s on winning a championship for the city of New York.”
Character. An underrated trait that runs rampant in the Mets clubhouse.
(Hee hee hee, Patriots lost.)
