The Mets-Céspedes free agent dance

While the current Mets face the possibility of Pete Alonso leaving, a similar free agency stare down took place nine years ago

(The great former Daily News cartoonist Ed Murawinski with a Yoenis Céspedes special)

The postseason had ended for the Mets. There was no World Series trophy to be hoisted, no champagne sprayed in a victorious clubhouse and no Canyon of Heroes parade. With Mets players set to make winter golf tee times, the team’s front office had to weigh whether or not to sign a 30-year-old free-agent slugger who had been a force in the middle of the lineup. 

If this scenario sounds like the 2024 New York Mets and their impending winter dance with homegrown star – and now free agent – Pete Alonso (who turns 30 Dec. 7), well…

Call it a 2015 redux, when the Mets were booted from the World Series by the Royals after a glorious, and unexpected postseason run. Yes, Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy shined brightest at the plate during the club’s postseason surge, but it was deadline pickup Yoenis Céspedes who carried the team the last two months of that regular season, when he blasted 17 homers in 57 games after coming to Queens from the Detroit Tigers.

Murphy was also a free agent in the 2015 offseason, but the Mets only made a qualifying offer to the lefty-hitting infielder. Murphy instead went for the bigger bucks and signed with the NL East rival Nationals. The Mets and then general manager Sandy Alderson made Céspedes their top winter priority, and got some help from Mets players David Wright and Curtis Granderson, who made their own pitches to keep Céspedes in New York.

Before spring training 2016, sporting his Mets cap and pinstriped No. 52 jersey, Céspedes was feted at Citi Field after he signed a three-year, $75 million contract. The player known by his Spanish nickname, “La Potencia” (“The Power”), was subdued when interviewed by SNY in the press room, a “Got Yo Back” logo splashed on the TV screen over his shoulder.

“I think the thing that talked me into going with a three-year deal versus a five or six was just the amount of support I received from the fans, from my teammates and the Mets organization as a whole,” Cespedes said through his translator, Melissa Rodriguez Strozza.

Buried in all the pomp and circumstance of Céspedes’ return was that his contract allowed for an opt out after the 2016 season. Buried even further was the question of whether Alderson and the Mets were taking a gamble on a player who had already hopscotched around the majors with three different teams in three years. After signing with the A’s in 2012, Céspedes spent two and a half seasons in Oakland before a 2014 deadline trade to the Red Sox. 

I remember seeing him in the home Fenway clubhouse that 2014 summer when Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra were back in Boston to be inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame. During media access to the clubhouse, Céspedes hid in one of the back corners, speaking in Spanish with David Ortiz, but out of sight from reporters. The Sox failed to make the 2014 playoffs a year after winning the World Series.

That winter, Boston shipped Céspedes to the Tigers. 

He then spent half a season in Detroit before Alderson brought him to Queens. Was there something to Céspedes bouncing from the Bay Area to Back Bay to Motown? If he was a clubhouse problem or otherwise, Alderson and the Mets thought Céspedes’ talent outweighed any character flaws. That hunch proved accurate when Céspedes arrived in 2015. His talent was prodigious during the two-month rental.  When the World Series began, however, Céspedes’ bat fell asleep and he hit a paltry .150 with six whiffs over five games. 

Hope springs eternal each new season, and the Mets were no different in mindset come 2016 in Port St. Lucie. But a funny thing happened on the way to camp that February. Céspedes, who had been so soft-spoken at his press conference a few weeks earlier, morphed into a character right out of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” In a week’s time, Céspedes drove to camp in a different tricked-out ride each day – from a Lamborghini to a three-wheeled Polaris Slingshot to an Alfa Romeo (and not the one driven by Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate,” although that would’ve been cool). 

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/02/yoenis-cespedes-one-man-auto-show.html

It was a far cry from the living conditions of Céspedes’ father, Crescencio, in La Sal, Cuba (see below), which I had witnessed first-hand the previous fall. But that trip is for another Substack post.

Baseball players driving fancy cars is nothing new, it just seemed a bit over-the-top, and certainly belied the quiet, keep-to-himself demeanor some team officials and reporters were affixing to Céspedes. 

Once the season began, Céspedes mostly did what the Mets were paying him roughly $25 million to do – whack homers (31) and help carry the team into the postseason again. In between, though, there were some “bad optics” – Alderson’s words – when Céspedes hit the golf links with a bad quad.

When the Mets got to the postseason – a one-game playoff against the Giants – Céspedes’ offense disappeared again: an 0-for-4 night with two strikeouts. In fairness, Madison Bumgarner made all the Mets’ bats silent in a complete-game masterpiece.

Céspedes indeed opted out of his deal after the 2016 season, but Alderson and the Mets came right back to the slugger and gave him a four-year, $110 million contract, complete with a no-trade clause. And from there, mostly due to injuries, it was downhill for “La Potencia” and the Amazin’s. Céspedes played in 81 games in 2017, 38 in 2018, missed the entire 2019 season, and appeared in a whopping 8 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. 

The New York Post was first to report in early 2020 that Céspedes had a run-in with a wild boar – not a misprint – at his Port St. Lucie ranch in May 2019, which caused him to step into a hole and fracture his right ankle. Following his eight-game stint in 2020, Céspedes never played in the majors again. 

In early 2023, before spring training started, I talked with former Mets manager Terry Collins about Céspedes for a Forbes story. By then, “La Potencia” was a free agent and two full seasons removed from playing in the majors. Collins said he thought that his former player could still make an impact with a major league club.

“I know that (the Mets front office will) do all the homework. But hey, a guy with his ability, why wouldn’t you just look into it? Why wouldn’t you check and see?” Collins said. “I don’t know where Yo stands today on whether he would come back to New York. How bad does he really want to play? (The Mets) are sitting here the other day looking for a fourth outfielder, a guy that can DH. I know Ces enough to know – let me tell you something, if there’s a guy who can be the Comeback Player of the Year, it could be him. He’s that talented of an athlete.”

If the Mets ever revisited the Céspedes option, it didn’t result in a return engagement.

Now the team’s focus shifts to Alonso and whether the front office can convince Alonso’s rep, super agent Scott Boras, that Queens should be where the first baseman continues his career. Mets owner Steve Cohen certainly has the dough to drop on Alonso, and the slugger has already proven he can perform in the bright lights of Gotham. The Mets just might want to check and see if any wild boars are roaming around the Alonso property first.