The Mets Just Won The Lottery Thanks To Yoenis Cespedes

by Darren Meenan December 14, 2019

Now while I've never read a baseball contract, I still know there's a lot of shit in there that says you can't do dangerous stuff. A player's dreams of cruising the strip on a Harley, sky diving, or climbing trees on his ranch need to be put on hold until after they retire. 

Essentially, Céspedes agreed to amended compensation because of the circumstances of his ranch injury. This is a settlement, but to be clear: Céspedes is still under contract and both he and the Mets still intend for him to play in 2020.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) December 13, 2019

If you remember, our old pal R.A. Dickey climbed Mount Kilimanjaro before the 2012 season. The Mets warned him that they reserve the right to void the remaining year on his contract if he was injured on the mountain. He did it anyway without issue, and ended winning the NL Cy Young award that year. All good.

Not sure if the SF Giants ever punished MadBum, but he crashed a rented dirt bike during an off day in Colorado and missed a couple months of the season back in 2017. I don't wanna be the fun police here, but you gotta know that kind of shit is just not allowed. 

There's been a laundry list off weird off field injuries in MLB, but in typical #LOLMets fashion, Yoenis Cespedes' "violent fall" at his Florida ranch last year - while already recovering from double heel surgery - hits closest to home. 

I love everything about Cespedes' farm life. He's a great family man, and it's impressive to see a guy that is worth what he is still out there getting his hands dirty. In that same breath, he absolutely can not be doing this: 

Only he knows what he fell from to cause the latest injury, but this Vice Sports piece from 2017 shows the Million Dollar Man climbing a tree in boots, with no harness, to put up a stand. Not the greatest idea, Yo. 

At this point, it really doesn't matter what he was doing, but it was considered dangerous and the team must have enough evidence to connect the dots. 

TL;DR version: Yoenis Cespedes got injured. He said he stepped in a hole. There was reason to believe that wasn’t the case. Mets withheld salary in 2019, threatened to do same in 2020. Rather than go to a potentially all-or-nothing grievance, Cespedes settled for reduced salary.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 13, 2019

Now the Mets on the other hand were just gifted free loot thanks to Cespedes' actions, and they damn well better be re-investing that in to the team. This roster has glaring holes and while I hope to see bounce back years from the likes of Diaz, Familia, and hopefully Cespedes, that can't be banked on. They have no excuse for not reinvesting it back in to the payroll.

Cespedes is in the final year of his contract, and all parties involved want to see him crushing moon shots in Flushing come 2020. How that'll actually happen coming off double heel surgery and this mystery injury remains to be seen. Not holding my breath on that one.

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