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Yoenis Cespedes chooses the Mets over money, turning down more lucrative offers to stay in New York.
Yoenis Cespedes, the slugger who helped push the Mets to the postseason last year, wanted to return to Queens so much he apparently turned down more money elsewhere to stay.
Cespedes and the Mets reached an agreement Friday night on a three-year contract worth $ 75 million that contains an opt-out clause after one year, according to a baseball source with knowledge of the deal. The contract will be official after Cespedes passes a physical exam.
The move, which may have seemed unlikely earlier in the off-season, perhaps made the Mets the favorites to defend their National League crown and return to the World Series.
Some Met fans clamored on social media all winter for their favorite team to keep the 30-year-old Cespedes, who blasted 17 homers in 57 games after the Mets got him from Detroit in a midseason trade. But Cespedes started the off-season talking about his hopes for a six-year deal and Met GM Sandy Alderson waited, keeping in touch with Cespedes’ camp, while some criticized the Mets for not adding a hitter.
Cespedes had multiple other offers, the source said, and could have been paid more. But he thoroughly enjoyed his time with the Mets and liked the fit in their clubhouse, as well as the high-powered team built on young starting pitching.
“I know he liked it,” another person who knows Cespedes said. “I know he felt comfortable and liked the city. I know he likes the East Coast because it’s easy to get home to his family in Miami.
“I know he likes the big stage.”
Now maybe Cespedes’ agents at CAA/Roc Nation can help him take advantage of the business opportunities the city might offer, too.
With the opt-out clause, Cespedes could test the free-agent market again after this upcoming season against what some might view as a less top-heavy outfield class, if he chooses. Among the potential free agent outfielders after the ’16 season: Jose Bautista, Carlos Gomez, Jay Bruce and Colby Rasmus.
At $ 25 million per season, Cespedes gets the highest average annual value of any free agent position player this off-season, though he sacrificed a longer-term opportunities to get it. He’ll make $ 27.5 million from the Mets if he stays only one season, the source said, because the contract is front-loaded with a bonus.
The pact also contains a full no-trade clause and contains no deferred money.
The Nationals appeared to be the biggest threat to sign Cespedes, which would have given Washington the Mets’ 3-4 hitters from the postseason run, considering that they signed Daniel Murphy earlier this winter. Washington apparently made a five-year, $ 100-million offer to Cespedes this week and their interest may have prodded the Mets.
Earlier this winter, the Orioles reportedly offered Cespedes five years and $ 90 million, but then they resigned their slugging first baseman, Chris Davis.
The Mets, two club sources said, were unwilling to match the dollars or years in Washington’s offer. But the Mets found another way to get the deal done.
Cespedes’ agents apparently reached out informally to the Yankees, trying to get them involved in the bidding, in part because of Cespedes’ affinity for New York.
But there was no hope of a match there. The Yanks have not looked to add a big contract all winter and have talked about how they’re looking forward to having several large contracts expire after this season. Plus, they have a crowded outfield already, with Brett Gardner, Carlos Beltran, Aaron Hicks and Jacoby Ellsbury set there.
One person familiar with the Yanks’ thinking suggested that the Yankees’ name was referenced to throw a scare into Cespedes’ other suitors.
Now Cespedes seems ticketed for a lot of time in center field at Citi Field in 2016, with the Mets using Michael Conforto in left and Curtis Granderson in right. Maybe Conforto sits against lefties, like he did in 2015, which would mean Juan Lagares would play center while Cespedes is in left. The Mets also have Alejandro De Aza in the outfield.
Cespedes was a tremendous addition to the Mets last summer, helping revive a listing offense in a pennant run. He had 35 extra-base hits and 44 RBI in just 230 at-bats and slugged an eye-popping .604 as a Met after coming over from Detroit in a deal for pitching prospects Luis Cessa and Michael Fulmer.
Overall in 2015, he hit 35 homers and had 105 RBI, both career bests.
Cespedes homered twice in the Mets’ division series victory over the Dodgers, but did not hit another home run in the postseason. He was just 3-for-20 (.150) in the World Series loss to the Royals, which may have dimmed his remarkable half-season with the Mets.
Plus, he had played for four teams since defecting from his native Cuba and debuting in 2012 with Oakland. The A’s traded him to Boston in 2014 as part of a deal for Jon Lester and then the Red Sox flipped him to Detroit after that season for pitcher Rick Porcello.
Some in baseball thought the fact that he bounced around in a relatively short career so far was a red flag. Perhaps that impacted the market for him this winter.
Teams snapped up pitching first on the free agent market this winter while the hitters’ market took shape slowly. The market for Cespedes, the last big hitter to find a team, heated up this week after Justin Upton signed with the Tigers.
No matter why it took so long for him to find a home, Cespedes can be a dynamic player and his power is undeniable, even though he never had a 35-homer season before last year. Overall in his four-year career, he has 106 homers in 575 games, slugging 23, 26, 22 and 35 in each season since 2012.
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Daily News – Sports