According to Andy Martino of SNY, the Mets and Yoenis Cespedes have agreed to rework his contract for the 2020 season. Martino also tweets out that Cespedes will remain a Met for the 2020 season. Tim Healey of Newsday mentioned that the reworked deal will lower Cespedes’ annual 2020 salary, but will add incentives for the slugger to reach.
Martino notes that the Mets and Cespedes were close to hearing related to his ranch injury and a potential contract violation. Tim Healey of Newsday reports that the grievance settlement has been approved by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.
After an investigation last spring, the Mets stopped paying Cespedes, that salary as well as a significant reduction of his 2020 salary are part of the settlement.
Cespedes was poised to earn 29.5 million dollars in 2020 with 27.5 million of that sum counting against the luxury ax payroll. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that the reduction in Cespedes’ 2020 salary is “significant.”
Cespedes, now 34, signed a four-year, $110 million dollar pact with New York after the 2016 season. While it seemed like a quality signing at the point, Cespedes simply hasn’t lived up to his part of the contract. He’s been terrific when healthy, as evident by his 132 OPS+ over the last two seasons, but has only been able to appear in 119 games over that span.
Cespedes has been on the injured list since July 2018 to fix calcification on both of his heels. He seemed poised to make a return late in the 2019 season but was injured falling at his ranch. Even though Cespedes has been filmed taking BP and has started running, Brodie Van Wagenen and the rest of the Mets front office have been noncommittal on his return.
It’s being reported by numerous outlets, that the modification to his contract relates to the injury he suffered on ranch.
For a team that’s only 1.7 million dollars away from the luxury tax line, the ramifications of this reworked deal is huge. While the exact amount of money the Mets are saving from Cespedes’ contract is currently unknown, it could lead to additional free-agent signings over the winter for the Mets.
