Can the New York Mets keep their star outfielder, Yoenis Cespedes, after this season?
The New York Mets are again in the mix for the NL East. After winning it for the first time since 2006 last season, they are just 1.5 games behind the Washington Nationals. The move that put them over the top last season was not trading for Carlos Gomez and then trading for Yoenis Cespedes just before the deadline.
The Mets re-signed Cespedes last off-season to a three-year $75 million deal that has an opt-out after this year. If he opts out, Cespedes will get $27 million. If you can believe, Cespedes has been even better this season.
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Cespedes walk rate has more than doubled from 4.9% to 10.1%. He has an OPS of 1.065 and leads the majors in homers with 15. Meanwhile his BABIP is actually down 10 points to .313.
With David Wright in decline and Michael Conforto not quite there yet, Cespedes is the guy on the Mets. He, at this point, is their best position player. The question is can they keep him long term?
"“It’s a little early,” John Ricco, the Mets’ assistant general manager, said Tuesday, before Matt Harvey struggled again in the Mets’ 7-4 loss to Washington at Nationals Park. “We really haven’t had discussions about that. It’s probably in the back of everyone’s mind, maybe, but nothing that we’ve even discussed internally.“There’ll be a time and place for that and I think when that time comes, we’ll see what happens. But we haven’t really started down that road yet.”"
Cespedes is on his way to being the most coveted free agent in the market. Jose Bautista isn’t having that great a season. Neither is Edwin Encarnacion. Josh Reddick is injured and wasn’t putting him the kind of numbers that Cespedes is. Stephen Strasburg re-signed in Washington.
If Cespedes keeps putting up these kind of numbers, he could find himself in the MVP conversation. If he really wants to stay in NY long-term they should have some talks. If not, there’s no reason for him to yet.
The Mets increased their payroll this year in large part because of their run last season. They took that extra money and re-invested it in the club. Those great young pitchers are going to get more and more expensive, and this is a club that doesn’t want to give out many long-term deals. As we have seen all across baseball, those long-term deals can be killer.
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Cespedes has all the leverage here. I’m sure he will opt-out after this season, and there will be a ton of teams interested. Will the New York Mets ante up the big bucks and keep him?