Mets: Was it a mistake to sign Yoenis Cespedes to a mega-contract?

Following the magical 2015 postseason run, the New York Mets signed Yoenis Cespedes to a four-year $110 million dollar contract. Was it a mistake?

Since 2015, New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has played in just 118 games and is struggling to stay on the field with a plethora of injuries.

After two years of prolonged injuries and lack of consistency, it is time to question whether or not the signing of Cespedes to a mega-contract was a good idea.

From a financial viewpoint, the Mets really bind themselves into a strict monetary commitment. Cespedes’ 4-year payout is as follows:

2017: $22,500,000
2018: $29,000,000
2019: $29,000,000
2020: $29,500,000

This is highly uncharacteristic for such a cheap team. The signing of Cespedes was one of the very few instances in the past decade where the Mets went out and paid whatever they had to for a particular player. To put it bluntly, the results haven’t been what was expected.

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Although Cespedes hit .292 in 2017, he played in just 81 games – exactly half of the season. He was plagued with quadriceps, hip, and hamstring issues the entire year. This isn’t what the organization envisioned when signing Cespedes the year prior.

To be fair, it seemed as if the entire team was hurt in 2017. Regardless, Cespedes can’t continue this on the field, off the field nonsense.

57 games into the 2018 campaign, Cespedes has already missed 20 games and is still on the Disabled List. This season, we can’t even say he played good when he was healthy. His batting average was a mediocre .255 and he had just 6 home runs.

Cespedes has been eligible to come off the DL for some time now, but the front office has opted to give him more time to recover from his strained right hip flexor.

Cespedes is scheduled to take live at-bats shortly, meaning he may not need to partake in a rehab assignment in the minor leagues. The Metropolitans are reportedly aiming for a subway series return for Cespedes on Friday, 6/8.

In any case, they desperately need his bat in the lineup. Since their 11-1 start, the Mets are 16-29 and suddenly can’t score runs.

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Taking all things into consideration, the signing of Yoenis Cespedes has not paid off the way the Mets had expected. The Cuban slugger needs to get healthy and pick up his play as soon as possible to dispel the notion that this was a bad signing.

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