Yoenis Cespedes to Begin Private Workouts
By Editorial Staff
We talked yesterday of how Yoennis Cespedes has already gained plenty of suitors since erupting onto the National scene earlier this week. Now, Cespedes is planning on conducting private workouts for clubs interested in seeing him live in action and not just on YouTube.
Edgar Mercedes, Cespedes’s advisor, spoke with Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus regarding Yoennis, his future plans and the ridiculous scouting video that was made public earlier this week.
Soon after that original YouTube video was posted, it was taken down. A day later an edited version of the video re-emerged.
As he did in his story earlier in the week, Goldstein focused much of his attention on the workout video. When asked why the clip was removed and then edited, Mercedes said that several things had been taken out because they were seen as offensive by some people.
The first thing to go was some of the background music which included adult lyrics. Goldstein also noticed the absence of a clip that featured Cespedes roasting a pig with others. Mercedes told Goldstein that “so many people were offended by the pig”.
By showing the pig roast, Mercedes was just trying to show that Cespedes is “a family guy”. Pig roasting activities are common in the Cuban culture, and Mercedes compared the event to people in the United States grilling large pieces of meat during tailgate parties.
Mercedes also confirmed that Ahman Green, former running back of the Green Bay Packers, did indeed make an appearance in Cespedes’s video. According to Cespedes’s head trainer, “Ahman Green is a good friend who was brought down for two weeks to show Yoennis the motivation required to succeed at the highest level”.
The obvious question is why Mercedes would produce such a strange and out-of-the-ordinary scouting video for Cespedes. To Mercedes it made perfect sense. A player like Cespedes has never come out of Cuba so those surrounding him wanted to make a new type of scouting tape. Mercedes said that if they would have made “a normal scout video”, people would say “ho-hum”.
Mercedes has already setup private workouts for several teams, as Cespedes will meet with the Marlins tomorrow. Other teams that will be visiting the Dominican to take a closer look at Cespedes include the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Indians, Blue Jays and Pirates.
As far as negotiations go, Mercedes said that Cespedes’s paperwork should be taken care of by the end of this month. At that point, Adam Katz, Cespedes’s agent, will be able to take over, and Mercedes believes that Yoennis will “be in spring training with a Major League club”.
You can check out all of the available free agents by position below.