New York Mets assistant general manager John Ricco addressed the media before tonight’s Subway Series finale against the Yankees in the Bronx.

After all the fervor surrounding Mets’ outfielder Yoenis Cespedes throughout the weekend, the organization’s front office had yet to officially comment on the news that the Cuban star may need surgery to resolve calcification in both of his heels, an issue that’s been plaguing him since a teenager.

Ricco finally sat down and answered some of the questions that have been hanging in the balance over the past 48 hours. He started off talking about how the perceived wide gap between what Cespedes was feeling and what the team knew about the situation.

“I don’t think there’s a disconnect. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in a group session that he’s had this heel issue. It predates his time with us, he’s had it for quite a while. It’s something that he’s managed, we’ve managed with him. It’s one of these things where he has good days and bad days with it.”

The assistant GM went on to speak about the multiple alternatives to having Cespedes’ condition surgically remedied.

“It’s a condition that; I think he brought up surgery, but surgery is kind of like a last resort thing. The way you treat this is with various conservative methods, whether they be orthotics, stretching, anti-inflammatories, and that’s kind of how he’s managed those symptoms over the past years.”

“In this case, he was checked out again for this down in Florida a few weeks ago, and it was the same diagnosis. The surgery is fairly radical, it’s gonna perch out for a while, so it’s not something that you look to do immediately. Again, as I mentioned, he has good days and bad days.”

Since there were no discernable ill-effects after his rehab games with the GCL Mets last week, the team apparently felt that it was the right time to bring him back into the fold.

“He played three games in a row down in Florida last week and was fine, came up here on Friday and played, and despite only DH’ing, he had some pain, and I think maybe more pain than he expected.

“When he raised the issue of surgery, of course, we’re going to take that seriously. We’re gonna have him checked out by our doctors tomorrow or sometime early this week, and we’ll see where it is.”

“He came in today and was actually feeling better and even volunteered to DH again, but given the circumstances, we’re here in New York, we’re gonna get him checked out and we’ll see where he is.”

When asked if he was surprised that Cespedes brought it up to the media, Ricco posed that it could be mostly about frustration at this point for the outfielder.

“I think he probably was frustrated that it was maybe a little more painful than he expected, and so I can’t speak for why or how he said it, but he did say it, and I think we have to take that seriously.”

Ricco said that Cespedes’ comments after Friday night’s win were the first the Mets’ front office heard about the possibility of surgery for their 32-year-old slugger.