New York Mets: Can they trust Yoenis Cespedes the rest of the season?
By Jason Evans
Yoenis Cespedes left last night’s game with a heel injury in just his second game back after returning from a hamstring injury. How much can the New York Mets trust the slugging outfielder moving forward?
Pop quiz: Who was the only team to give a player a contract over $100 million last off-season and which player was that contract given to? Answer: The New York Mets and Yoenis Cespedes. Honestly, couldn’t fault them for it.
Cespedes can be a game-changing power bat when healthy. Heck, in his first game back over the weekend, Cespedes made a 2-1 lead in the ninth a 6-1 lead when he hit a grand slam. He transformed the team and the franchise when he came over in 2015 and helped lead the New York Mets to a World Series appearance.
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It’s gotten to a point where the Mets have now changed the workout routine for Cespedes because of the hamstring and quad injuries.
"“It usually takes me about an hour to get through it,” he said through a translator. “So I think it’s what’s going to help me to stay healthy . . . They’re waist, back, leg exercises. I think that my elasticity will improve.”"
Now, you can add the heel to list of leg injuries as Cespedes left last night’s game with a heel injury. This being after Cespedes said the below.
Cespedes on Saturday: “I don’t feel 100% but I feel that I am ready to play. ... I wouldn’t go out there if I knew I could injure myself."
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) June 13, 2017
Cespedes said he's dealt w/ this heel pain since he was in Cuba. Some days it hurts, others not. Mets wanted him to leave game early to rest
— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) June 13, 2017
As the New York Mets try to dig out of the giant hole they’ve created for themselves, the question that has to be asked is whether they can trust their best offensive player moving forward this season.
The answer is no.
Cespedes is too bulky. What baseball player needs to deadlift 900 pounds? There is no reason for any baseball player to have to lift that kind of weight. They need to be more flexible than bulky. That bulk may have been a part of why, like Cespedes, Noah Syndergaard, finds himself on the DL instead of pitching every fifth day.
With Cespedes’ earlier injury, Michael Conforto established himself into a potentially huge piece of the Mets future. The 24 year old has hit his first slump of the year though, as he’s hitting just .182 in June.
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Cespedes and Conforto should be a part of the outfield for the New York Mets for years to come. However, with the injury history just this season and let’s face it, the ineptitude of the Mets training staff, it’s going to be quite hard for the team to have a healthy Cespedes the rest of the way.
If they don’t have that, it may be quite hard for them to get back to the playoffs for a third straight year.