New York Mets, Yoenis Cespedes amend current contract: a timeline
By Manny Gómez
On Friday it was announced that Yoenis Cespedes has agreed to amend his current deal with the New York Mets. Here’s everything we know.
It’s not often that a team, a player, the league, and the union come to a resolution on anything, let alone amending a player’s contract. Well, on Friday ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that the New York Mets and Yoenis Cespedes have agreed to “significantly lower Cespedes’ salary” and the league and union were involved.
In an effort to fully understand what happened and why, we have put together a timeline of the events that took place leading up to today’s news.
July 20, 2018 – After missing two months with a nagging hip injury, Cespedes returns to the Mets and homers against the New York Yankees. This will be the last game he plays.
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August 2, 2018 – Cespedes undergoes a procedure to remove bone calcification in his right heel.
October 23, 2018 – Cespedes undergoes the same procedure on his left heel.
May 20, 2019 – While still recovering from the heel surgeries that were said to sideline him for most of the 2019 MLB season, Cespedes breaks his ankle at his ranch. The injury likely ends any possibility of a return in 2019, according to Bob Nightengale.
At the time, Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen called the injury a “non-baseball injury,” hinting that perhaps the teams would attempt to get out of the remaining balance of his 4-year, $110M deal.
Today, we come to learn that the Mets withheld Cespedes’ salary in 2019 because they had, as Jeff Passan put it, “reason to believe” that Cespedes wasn’t being truthful with his claim that he had stepped in a hole. After an investigation, according to Joel Sherman, the team simply stopped paying him and filed a grievance.
December 13, 2019 – As a result of all of this, a settlement was reached today. Here’s a breakdown of the settlement:
Heard Cespedes lost a piece of $29M 2019 salary. Bigger loss is his 2020 will go from $29.5M to less than $10M. Can make back in bonuses enough to earn roughly $20M (essentially play to pay). Clearly was worried a grievance could lead to total loss of the $29.5. #Mets
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 13, 2019
We are not sure what the investigation into Yoenis Cespedes yielded, but apparently it was strong enough that MLB, the New York Mets, the player, and the players union agreed to amend the deal.
What we are sure of, however, is that Cespedes did not step in a hole, as he claimed. Otherwise, we would’ve heard of the Mets withholding his salary and the MLBPA would wage all-out war against the league.
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At the end of the day, the settlement is fair. Cespedes will have to “play to pay” and BVG, who coincidentally negotiated Cespedes’ deal as his agent will now likely save some money as his GM. Unbelievable.