Mets: Yoenis Cespedes needs second half history to repeat itself

To redeem an otherwise lost season, New York Mets slugger Yoenis Cespedes needs to have an amazing second half of 2018.

With the news earlier this week that Yoenis Cespedes will join the club ahead of the Subway Series’ return to the Bronx, all eyes will be on the New York Mets slugger for multiple reasons.

First off, Cespedes hasn’t been truly healthy in a long time, having been sidelined with several leg issues for the majority of the 2018 season, as well as a large portion of the 2017 season. Is Yo healthy? The Mets seem to think so.

After all the pomp and circumstance surrounding Cespedes’ monster contract with the Mets, there have been little results seen on the field. Aside from his 2016 season, that saw Cespedes hit his normal career numbers, the last year and a half have been disastrous for the Mets and the Mets payroll.

However, the second half is just beginning and Cespedes absolutely rakes in the second half of the season. For a player who has been traded at the deadline twice in two years, playing for 4 different teams in that span, that’s not an easy feat to accomplish.

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Throughout his career, Cespedes has always had a great back half of the year. With the exception of his adequate 51 games for the Red Sox in 2014, Yo knows how to power his way through the second half.

In his career, Yoenis has hit .266/.321/.482, with an OPS of .803 during the first half of the season. Playing in 470 first half games during his time in the MLB, Cespedes has sent 89 baseballs to their final reward. Not too shabby.

However, in the second half, Yo’s batting average along jumps 18 points, to a solid .284, rounding out his slash line to .284/.336/.517, with an OPS of .853. Cespedes also has 73 second half moonshots, 17 of which came during the 2015 run to the NL East crown and the NL Pennant.

With the Mets looking to salvage what’s left of the dumpster fire that is the 2018 season, Yo can help out by resolidifying himself as a staple of this lineup. Before going down for the remainder for the first half, Cespedes was hitting a measly .255, with 8 long balls to his name. For a 37 game stint, that’s not great, especially when the price tag is the size of Yo’s.

All of that aside, it will be great to have Yo back in the lineup, providing something to cheer about as we move into the dog days of summer.

It’s been a long time since we all had something to cheer about.

Next: 20 biggest disappointments of the Mets season

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Hopefully, Yo’s return to action will give us a few more.