After taking another collar during Saturday’s 5-0 loss to the Yankees, outfielder Yoenis Cespedes is now hitless in his last 17 at-bats.
According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, the coaching staff is concerned that their once red-hot slugger hasn’t been the same since he was hit in the upper leg by Marlins right-hander Tom Koehler last Tuesday.
“One of the coaches brought up during the game that he’s 0-for-15 since they drilled him,” manager Terry Collins said. “I don’t think he’s afraid by any stretch of the imagination. We’ll just keep running in him out there.”
In an attempt to get Cespedes going again, Collins plans to bat him lower in the order in Sunday’s Subway Series finale.
Cespedes has primarily batted in the second and third spots in the batting order since joining the Mets. No word on how much lower in the order he’ll bat tomorrow, but this is likely temporary.
“We’ll see if we can get some guys on ahead of him,” Collins added. “That might help out.”
David Wright expressed confidence that Cespedes will break out of it very soon.
“Unless you want him to hit .500 with 100 home runs per year, which is what his pace was for a few weeks or a month or whatever it was, you’re inevitably going to slow down a little bit,” Wright said.
“But he’s the type of guy that makes adjustments fairly quickly. It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets hot again here real soon.”
Cespedes has seen his batting average drop from .309 to .283 since he was hit by Koehler.
