Mets outfielder Michael Cuddyer has decided to retire, Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com reports on Twitter. Needless to say, that’s a major surprise, particularly as Cuddyer stands to earn $12.5MM this year in the second and final season of his contract.
It has not yet been reported whether Cuddyer, 36, will receive any portion of his 2016 salary, though Rubin adds on Twitter that some kind of buyout seems likely. Cuddyer turned down a qualifying offer (then valued at $15.3MM) to sign with the Mets for two years and $21MM.
Cuddyer joined New York after two consecutive seasons of huge offensive numbers with the Rockies. Even after adjusting for altitude, Cuddyer was impressive at the plate, running up a 139 OPS+ over 2013-14. But awful defensive metrics and injury issues — combined with advanced age — limited his appeal.
That all caught up to Cuddyer in 2015, as he managed only a .259/.309/.391 slash line in 408 plate appearances. With his poor glovework counted in the tally, Cuddyer contributed at or just slightly above replacement level last year.
A tough season at the end of the line doesn’t detract from an outstanding career, of course. Over parts of 15 seasons in the majors, all but four of which came with the Twins, Cuddyer put up an excellent .277/.344/.461 batting line and swatted 197 home runs. He earned All-Star nods in 2011 and 2013.
While it would be unfair to lose focus on Cuddyer’s own accomplishments, it’s hard not to consider the impact of this news on the defending NL pennant winners. There was plenty of reason to believe that Cuddyer would have been a useful contributor in 2016, but his hefty salary stood to represent more than 10% of New York’s 2015 Opening Day payroll.
It remains to be seen how much spending capacity the Mets will have to reallocate, but there will surely be some added funds to disburse. And with Michael Conforto joining Curtis Granderson as the presumptive starters in the corners, those dollars won’t necessarily need to go directly to a replacement. Instead, after having already beefed up the team’s infield ranks, the Mets can either up their allocation to a new center fielder (with Juan Lagares becoming an oft-used fourth outfielder) or put the dollars toward another bench bat or reliever.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wow. Shocking.
How’s it shocking?
Because he’s walking away from $12.5MM.
There’s still classy men in MLB. Ryan Dempser walked away from money too.
Gil Meche as well.
Dumb and classy don’t mean the same thing. That being said, I’m sure he is still going to get paid somehow. If he is really that close with Wright like some people say….there might lay the answer to that. Things do happen under the table sometimes, don’t be naive.
The Mets have no excuse for not upgrading their team with a power bat now!
Cuddyer is one of the classiest men in baseball for sure. Great clubhouse guy and teammate, but his personal life away from the field goes much deeper than that. He deserves a little time away from the diamond to spend with his family, but he would be a great hitting coach or managerial candidate down the line IMO.
Good career with the Twins and Rockies
Mets is another story but you know hey
Lucky Mets….
This helps the Mets out tremendously in a totally unpredictable way. I have tremendous respect for him leaving money on the table because he knows it’s time to move on from baseball. Best of luck to him. Seems like one of the good guys in the game.
3 year deal only really? Why not a 4 or 5? You see what he did for you guys? Your young pitching is pretty much set. You guys gotta make a big splash with Cepedes or Upton C’mon you guys are the New York Mets!!! Your window is now!!!!!
I’d even go 6 if I had to, he is only 30. Most players don’t look 48 at 36 like Cuddyer. Too many Mets fans have accepted that the owners are cheap and talk themselves out of being disgusted by the front office basically saying it is highly unlike;y that they even make the man an offer. The team is a money machine, they can afford it. After that ridiculous Heyward deal they’d be so lucky to get a guy that has actually driven in 100 runs in his career for less money. Save the advanced stats please. He’s a nice player and young but he is getting paid for what he might become, which is ridiculous. He has hit 20 or more homers o0nce, driven in 100 runs never and for his career has hit below 270. Give me a break!
Who are you talking to?
This helps the Mets, but we gave up a 1st round draft pick for 1 mediocre injury filled year of Cuddyer. They better not be forced to pay his salary.
Mets shed some payroll but is it enough to sign Upton or Cespedes.
They should avoid Upton and Cespedes. Those contracts could really cripple a franchise. Only would have interest in Cespedes if he could be had on a three year deal, but that’s not happening.
Realistically, I think Cespy may come down to a 5 year deal. He’s pretty much guaranteed to beast for 3 years, and he’s probably be good for his age 34 and 35 season. I’d offer 5 years 100-110 mil.
Upton is better
Upton has no ability to play center, so he doesn’t fit in the team’s plan whatsoever.
He’s also not a clubhouse cancer like ces is. And last I looked cespedes caused the mets several runs with his bad fielding in the playoffs.
Upton is not better. He could be but he could also fall off a cliff like his brother. Ces is a cancer in the clubhouse? According to who? What did he do? These guys are pretty much all millionaires and he hasn’t gotten in any serious legal trouble so I definitely would not use that as an excuse. The team made it to the World Series and seemed to like him just fine to me. He made some bonehead plays in the playoffs but A.) they aren’t there without him, and B.) clearly he didn’t do it on purpose. He plays hard, people who say otherwise just have other problems with players like him that I can’t help them with.
I can see Cespedes going back to the Mets now, Upton might go to the O’s.
Upton is younger but he might demand more.
Upton or Cespedes?
If it’s the same amount of years I’d take Upton.
How about you guys?
Didn’t Upton have clubhouse issues when he was with the Diamondbacks?
Or was it just contract issues?
Cripple?? Your the New York Mets act like it your not Tampa or Oakland!
Have to say but Fred Wilpon doesn’t seem to
want to spend much on the team that much.
I think adding a bat or two would surely put them over the Nationals
but they don’t seem like they’re in a win now kind of mind set.
It’s a shame because their rotations filled with riches.
Wonder why they won’t go all in.
Greatd- I agree with you they are right freakin there gotta go all in!
Upton or Cespedes don’t play center field. I’m a Mets fan but I’ve seen this act before. Fans get desperate for a free agent and we wind up with Jason Bay, Oliver Perez, etc.
You lucky Mets fans. I wish Prince Fielder and Elvis Andrus would be so kind.
Prince just had a nice year, why him?
His overall batting line is heavily skewed by his monster first half. During the second half, his power basically evaporated in the second half (9 2B, 9 HR, .130 ISO). If singles are all you can hit, and you’re a big, lumbering DH like Fielder is, you’re hurting the team more than you’re helping them most of the time.
fielder was the reason the rangers made the playoffs and andrus is an average SS. fielder is only 18 mil a year for the rangers for a middle of the order bat.
Fielders numbers are misleading. He has lost most of his power and is mostly a singles hitter who did nothing in the 2nd half of the season. Terrible defensively and on the bases. Does nothing in clutch situations.
Andrus is sub par both defensively and with the bat. He also gets thrown out on the bases often.
Neither are worthy of the money owed to them and are preventing the Rangers from being able to make significant additions for the foreseeable future.
I would of added Choo to this and very possibly will next year but he managed to turn things around after Bannister started benching him mid season.
Fielder was not the reason the Rangers made the playoffs. Thats a ridiculous statement. They made the playoffs because the additions of Hamels, Diekman and Dyson fortified the pitching along with the spark of Deshields and a manager that knows what he’s doing combined with the 2nd half collapse of the Astros and Angels.
Never was a huge Cuddyer fan, liked many others a lot better, but it will still be weird to not see him playing anymore.
Always did love to watch his hand breaking high fives and throwing guys out at second base after perfectly playing a ball off the Metrodome baggie.
It was actually themainemets on twitter who broke this story. He should get credit for this, he deserves it. He is the one who saw this happening and reported it to the public.
Can’t upvote from my phone…but would if I could. Michael Mayer deserves the credit.
No way this story breaks today without him. I bet they would have saved it for Monday. The beat writers had no clue this was happening, they all thought it was a lie. He deserves all the credit, it is frankly insulting to put Adam Rubin’s name behind this story.
See my comment below. There’s a difference between noticing the transactions page and actually reporting a news item. Pushing a possible story has value, too, but I see other twitter references prior in time anyway.
But yeah themainemets wasn’t the one that broke the story.
Rich Coutinho
@coutinho9
@themainemets deserves all the credit in the world for uncovering Cuddyer story with diligent research–great job
This guy has the first mention of it that I can find. Sorry.
twitter.com/acad1227/status/675481786684674048
Nice sleuthing
That’s ridiculous, Michael created this story. The beat writers were practically calling us delusional liars for bringing it up. The *only* reason they even looked into it in the first place is because of him. And they all have publicly said as much!
This story would not have existed if it weren’t for him. It would have been published straight to the Players Tribune without anyone noticing, and you’re be instead writing about how shocked you are.
Fact is simple: you wrote this blog entry last night *because* of Michael Mayer. If it weren’t for him, you would have linked to the Players Tribune.
Did a big upgrade just become possible. Cespedes returns then the mets are better than last year
Cespedes isn’t much of a CF. They may be in on Dexter Fowler now, though.
If you look at defensive metrics, neither is Fowler.
I’d pay the money for Cespedes, he’s an impact player. Signing Fowler is a waste, he isn’t an impact player. They could save even more money and get the same results by signing Raji Davis or Austin Jackson to platoon with Lagares if they want to go the cheap route, Combine the cost of Cuddyer and Cabrerra (about 43 million) then add it to the potential cost of Fowler (probably around 50-60 million). They can’t afford to pay Cespedes? I do not get the logic behind being afraid to sign a proven star in this situation. The media is going way too easy on the Mets right now.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the mets played a part in him retiring. You never see players retire and give up millions.
He injured his knee pretty badly and never seemed to recover. He probably figured it was never going to heal and he should hang up the cleats rather than constantly suffer through the pain of trying to stay in shape.
2015 Offseason MVP: Michael Cuddyer
upvote
Loved Cuddy from his Twins days. He had a solid career and managed to play every position in the majors, including pitcher, except catcher and SS.
Well the Mets gave up a first round pick for nothing.
So you would have been happier if he”d come back injured for a second year and sucked again?
Google “Sunk Cost”.
One of the good guys you always wanted to root for. God speed Michael.
Savings should pay for the first year of a three year contract for a Gerardo Parra signing.
I’d like to bring up Gil Meche who was an honorable man as well.
And the Mets have unwrapped their Christmas present.
I know you guys are close with Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog and that’s why you never reply to my emails over the years or link to us even when we’ve had exclusive interviews with Sandy Alderson, Omar Minaya, Paul DePodesta, Dave Howard and J.P. Ricciardi. not to mention all the players..
But you should acknowledge us when Adam Rubin and everyone else on Mets beat confirmed what Michael Mayer of MetsmerizedOnline.com broke.
Just asking for some mutual respect and integrity.
1) I can assure you we do not avoid your content because Tim knows Matt. In fact, I know I’ve linked to something from your site before.
We generally don’t link to team-specific blogs unless there is original reporting — which would potentially include the interviews you cite. I encourage you to bring items like that to our attention via the contact form. Or, for more analytical items, please send a link to the BBWI email address for consideration. Of course, just because an exec says something doesn’t mean it will be linked to, but it’s certainly something we’d want to consider.
2) This is the first I’m hearing re the story being on your site. I just took a look, as I always do when anyone claims to have broken something.
Far as I can tell, the site refers to a tweet. Sorry, but this is not reporting the retirement: twitter.com/themainemets/status/675488640982769668
I’d probably add a note if you were the first to notice the transactions page change, under the circumstances. But I looked at Michael’s timeline, and checked it against other tweets, and I see at least one with an earlier timestamp citing the transactions page mention of Cuddyer retiring. So, I’m not sure it’s fair to say he started the story in this case either.
If you’d like to discuss that further, please email through the contact form.
3) I don’t believe there’s any lack of respect or integrity here.
I didn’t see any earlier timestamps then what themainemets had tweeted. Ruban was at least 1 hour behind after it was all over twitter. That he finally checked the transaction page. Which he then posted about.. Then progressed from there. So you can’t say Ruban was the one that broke this story when most of the beat writers were already late to it.. Just some acknowledge would be nice.
1) twitter.com/acad1227/status/675481786684674048
2) Rubin didn’t just say “the transactions page says he’s retired” and get credit. He reported it independently of that.
It’s not that he broke the story, it’s that he was first to take it from “hey what’s this curious entry on the transactions page” to “he is retiring.” Anyway, if you really want to get down to it, the first mention came from the transactions page itself, not from someone who noticed what it said, right?
—
If you look at MLBTR’s history, we acknowledge some really odd sources of info when they turn out to be right. Credit where due. I’m just looking at this objectively. Believe me, I’d love to give credit to the blog if I thought it was deserving in this instance.
I’m in a bit of a unique position to chime in on this in that I:
A) Used to write for MLBTR as their “Mets Guy”
B) Have respect for Matt and totally get where he’s coming from
C) Like Metsmerized, I have experienced the feeling of getting limited acknowledgment when producing unique content. Our podcast is the last place Gary Carter was ever interviewed – over 40 minutes of wonderful audio. Nolan Ryan talked about never wanting to be traded and why he was good on the Angles, Jerry Koosman and other 69 Mets gave us crazy content, Rick Peterson was a regular, we had Neikro and Hough on when Dickey was great, Jay Horowitz dropped a few nuggets on us last year etc. The podcast faded a bit because we felt like we were doing it for nothing..
Here’s my personal opinion:
A) People tune-out those who constantly complain they’re not being heard, especially when they make unfounded accusations drawn off obvious assumptions. Soon enough, you find you’ve become the pretentious.figures you were rallying against.
B) This is a livelihood for the mainstream media and it’s no a surprise that they are hesitant to show off the work of those who do it as a hobby. It’s giving people yet another option for content that crowds fight for clicks and eyes with people who have nothing to gain from it. . What value are you offering them exactly? Everyone should always ask themselves that…
C) Anyone who complains about a lack of exposure should look in the mirror and ask if they themselves have done the exact same thing.to others.
D) If a site wants to be the next MLBTR or Metsblog, do what they did and build a plan, spend some money and market it with purpose. Also, ask yourself what you want exactly and be honest… A task without an end-game is a car in idle. There was more than great content that went into the foundations of Metsblog and MLBTR… there was a business plan.
E) On a personal level, when my team and I conducted interviews and originally had our written blog, the ONLY people who treated us with any sort of professional respect was Matt, Tim D, Ted Berg, Mike Silva, Jon Heyman and those who people group more into the mainstream media. The only blogger who said boo or re-posted our content was Steve Keane, who eventually joined us.
D) Which brings me to the last thing… … let’s try and be a better fan-base. I LOVED the fact the team was finally breaking out the can of whoop-ass again after 30 embarrassing years, but I was sad to see so much me-first complaining still going on in the fan circles. We are not the media, we are the 26th man. Our job is to show young fans why we follow this team through our content, let ex-players know they were appreciated, and then go to the park and scare the crap out of whoever walks in Citifield. Forget the fact the team promotes the “7’line” or that SNY promotes Metsblog… it doesn’t change what you are or make them any more credible. Just do your thing, be great and if what you get back isn’t acceptable, do things that bring you more joy.
I wish everyone luck… now let’s go watch five aces throw fire and remember we’re all on the same team.
Matt Cerrone and Adam Rubin are clowns, they’d never admit to something like this, even if it is true. They’re spineless Wilpon puppets and always will be.
Admit to what, manipulating how MLBTR gives credit?! There’s no conspiracy theory here, folks. Sorry to disappoint.
Matt Cerrone isn’t a clown… give the man some credit,. He created a business from a hobby and took it as far as he possibly could. That deserves respect.
Newsflash: no one cares.
Huh??? Are you kidding me? I don’t want to be disrespectful to the guy but I watched him play at Citifield over a dozen times this season (not to mention in the playoffs) and, unfortunately, his defense was atrocious in left field. He could barely move ( you all saw him play that first game vs. the Dodgers, right?) due to his bad knee.
And even though you have to admit that he was going up against some of the best pitchers in the league, he looked badly overmatched in his plate appearances.
I thank him for knowing when to hang up his cleats, and congratulate him on his career. I’m sure the Wilpons are doing a dance in their offices, knowing they are saving 12.5 million!!!
There was plenty of reason to believe that Cuddyer would have been a useful contributor in 2016
It was this quote in the article that I was referring to. Not sure why it did not paste into my comment.
I don’t think “useful contributor” sets the bar very high, do you? Guys like Mark Reynolds get $2-3MM to serve as bench bats for contenders or semi-regulars for second division clubs, and Cuddyer at least profiles as that kind of player.
I agree with you, He was bad last year but if you view him as a bench player it changes things. Aside from health,the biggest problem with him was perception. He was the big off-season signing. I never liked the move or had high hopes but when you’re the biggest off-season signing a lot of people are going to set the bar higher than they probably should.
Why aren’t the Met’s going all in with their stellar pitching?
Isn’t now the time to brake bank?
Yes it is…but they have a history of making poor decisions,
Because their are no center fielders available who require breaking the bank? Also they want to restock the farm system after giving up Fulmer and others at the deadline.
The Mets are building a team the smart way. Not flashy, but smart. I’ll admit that Zobrist would have been nice, but that was clearly a personal decision.
In 2006 and 2007 it was a blast watching hapless runners get mowed down with Cuddy’s arm. It seemed like it took ages before 3B coaches started respecting him.
He was a good leader, very friendly with fans (still a good load of #5 shirts and jerseys at your average Twins game) and on the outskirts of stardom in his best couple of seasons. If only he could lay off a breaking pitch bouncing in the left handed batters box, just once.
Happy Retirement, Cuddy!
i guess the Mets can spend that money elsewhere but geez on a playoff competitive team plus the millions – Cuddyer must really want out of playing
I would love to have Cespedes back but you know who might fit this team even better? Chris Davis. I know he isn’t a sabermetrician’s best friend but he’s a beast regardless. He can play first third and the outfield decent enough and obviously has tremendous power. Yeah he strikes out a ton but his power can transform a lineup and his versatility will allow Conforto to still get plenty of playing time. Makes so much sense, I don’t get why nobody in the media mentions this, Put some pressure on the Mets to spend some money already! Forbes has the team value at $1.35 billion, they’re one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world! Only six other baseball teams are worth more! It is an absolute joke! Spend some money!
Was with you up until you said he could play defense. If an NL team gets him before the DH gets adapted then its a mistake. He’s bad at 1B now, and will get worse there.
I don’t think he will stop mashing though, unless MLB bans his meds.
Not to many baseball players will leave that amount of guaranteed money… Some of them are rather being released than retiring…. Good for Cudd…. Now the Mets can focus on getting Cargo from the Rockies… Flip Wheeler for him
This helps the Mets out a LOT this year. Expect them to make a big signing now. Upton?
The smartest move would be to go after Gordon, but they will have a lot of competition. He is the poor man’s Heyward, a great all around player. Upton and Cespedes have more of a presence and power.
Not many players who retire two years after winning a batting title, but then it’s not often that the headline rhymes.
Hey MLBTR, @themainemets, aka Michael Mayer, really broke this story, not Adam Rubin. Give credit where credit is due…