Not totally. While the deal quiets talk about the Mets past financial woes, (this contract puts the team at $140 million for 2016), the Mets could have matched that five-year offer from the Nationals and chose not to; instead the Mets put themselves in the uncomfortable spot of possibly losing Cespedes after this season.
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The recent signing of Yoenis Cespedes was discussed during a conference call on Wednesday with Mets GM Sandy Alderson, COO Jeff Wilpon, and Cespedes’ agent Brodie Van Wagenen. But when you turn down two separate 5-year offers from different teams, you really never wanted to leave to begin with, and that was the case with Cespedes, as Jon Heyman of CBS Sports has reported that he not only turned down Washington Nationals, but also turned one down from the Baltimore Orioles as well, as per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. They got to the World Series, but did not win the fall classic, and now they are hungry to return. The 30-year-old Cespedes gets a $10 million signing bonus and a $17.5 million salary this year.
The $25 million average value of the verbally agreed deal means that Cespedes is now in the league of Josh Hamilton and Giancarlo Stanton when it comes to the highest average annual value for an outfielder. “And obviously the fans coming out to see him, and supporting us, has something to do with it as well”. They were holding out hope the Cespedes market would continue to slide, and fortunately for them, he actually did come back around to the Mets.
Today the New York Mets announced that they have designated outfielder Darrell Ceciliani for assignment. As I entered free agency, I couldn’t deny the pull to come back and finish what we had started previous year.
After assuring Alderson that Cespedes wanted to return, the agent had a question of his own for the general manager: “Are you in it to win it?”
“I think that John’s statement late a year ago and my statements as recently as the Hall of Fame announcement reflected our sense of the probability”, Alderson said. Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob DeGrom and Stephen Matz give fans a reason to feel good about the future. Cespedes is counted on to anchor a batting order that struggled before his arrival.
“You always like to under-promise and over-produce”, Alderson said. My job is to support that, once we sign off on what we’re going to do.
Cespedes’ deal raises the Mets’ payroll to about $120 million for 14 players under contract, according to figures compiled by Major League Baseball.
The Mets had made some incremental improvements – replacing Daniel Murphy with Neil Walker, adding an everyday shortstop in Asdrubal Cabrera, giving $12 million to lefty reliever Antonio Bastardo – but none of those truly moved the needle.
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“Until we signed Yoenis”, Alderson said, “there wasn’t a lot of sizzle in what we did over the offseason, but I think (there were) a number of understated improvements that will help us”.
