3 recent Mets free agent additions who basically ended up in Witness Protection

2) Yoenis Cespedes

A player who actually did give us some memories, Yoenis Cespedes deserves to be on this list because of the way it all ended. There are some great memories of him in 2015. Sometimes forgotten, he had a monster season in 2016 while representing the Mets in the All-Star Game. He clobbered 31 home runs for them and remained a force in the middle of the lineup. The 2016 campaign was his first after re-signing with the team. He opted out after but would return for the 2017 campaign and beyond.

Cespedes was still good in 2017 but missed half the season. In 2018, he cut his games played down to 38. This was when the FBI seemed to get involved as the big slugging outfielder suddenly disappeared.

Cespedes last played for the 2018 Mets on May 13 before an IL stint. He’d return for the Subway Series on July 20 for one game. He homered. Then we never saw him again for the rest of the year. In fact, we didn’t see him until 2020.

The period from 2018-2020 was the weirdest for Cespedes. Exactly what was wrong with him seemed to change on a daily basis. We knew it was lower body, but was it his foot, leg, or something else? He famously ended up stepping in a hole while hunting wild boars on his farm in Florida. Yeah. That’s not good.

Our last view of Cespedes in the majors was in 2020. He homered twice in his 8 games then following some struggles, opted out of the year.

It was a wild ride with Cespedes. There were more than enough “you can’t make this up” stories with this guy.