Which Mets $100 million contracts worked and which didn’t

The $100 million Yoenis Cespedes contract took a quick nosedive

After the 2015 run to the World Series, Yoenis Cespedes became a free agent and agreed to return to the Mets. However, his contract had an opt-out which he exercised after a productive 2016 season. Hoping to get even more from the big guy, they signed him to a four-year contract worth $110 million.

Unlike the first season and a half with Cespedes on the Mets, the next few seasons were…well, interesting.

Cespedes missed exactly half of the miserable 2017 season but was productive when on the field. He returned in 2018 for only 38 games before going down with an injury, returning for a single game to hit a home run, and then going back on the injured list.

Foot injuries and a wild boar would highlight Cespedes’ 2018 and 2019—the latter of which he missed entirely. He did return in 2020 for 8 games. After hitting only .161 in his first 34 trips to the plate, he decided to opt-out of the season. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. He had already lost a lot of money from the original $110 million he was owed because of his off-field activities.

Among all of these $100 million contracts, the Cespedes one might be the easiest to forget. At least Wright remained a leader for the organization. Cespedes, under what was meant to be a four-year contract worth $110 million, played in only 127 games from 2017-onward.

Here’s to hoping the Scherzer contract is a lot more like the Beltran deal, less like the one Cespedes got.