Here’s a collection of early reactions to the Mets’ re-signing of Yoenis Cespedes to a three-year, $75MM deal that includes a no-trade clause and an opt-out after the first season.
- The Mets’ $75MM total offer was considerably less than the deal offered by the Nationals, who were willing to give Cespedes in excess of $100MM over five years and an opt-out after the second year, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. (Rosenthal notes that the Nats’ deal did contain “heavy deferrals,” however.) Cespedes’ willingness to stay in New York despite the promise of greater treasure elsewhere could make him a hero to Mets fans, and the deal is an “absolute triumph” for the Mets, writes Rosenthal.
- Cespedes’ new deal contains fewer years than anticipated, but it still makes him very highly paid on a year-by-year basis, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post writes. If Cespedes exercises his opt-out, he will have received $27.5MM for the 2016 season, an average annual value that’s second only to that of Miguel Cabrera’s among position players. Meanwhile, the deal turns the Mets into NL East favorites, Davidoff writes, and the downside risk of the deal is limited, since Cespedes is only signed for three years.
- The Cespedes re-signing is one of several moves this offseason that makes their defense worse, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs writes. The team had previously acquired Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera, both questionable defenders at the positions they’ll be asked to play. And Cespedes figures to take over for the light-hitting but defensively brilliant Juan Lagares in center. The Mets will have a strikeout-heavy pitching staff, which will limit the amount of damage their fielders can do, but the success of the team’s new-look group of position players will probably depend largely on their producing offensively.
- The Mets caught some luck that allowed them to sign Cespedes, Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal points out. First, Ben Zobrist rejected the Mets to sign with the Cubs. Then, Michael Cuddyer unexpectedly retired. That left them with the money necessary to sign Cespedes.
Given that the Mets deal was front loaded, vs. “severely back loaded”, had an AAV of $25M vs. about $20M, and the opt out was after one year rather than two year (which is an important difference in value for a player who is past 30 and about whom concerns have been expressed about his aging curve) – how different in value were the two deals, truly? To anyone who pays attention, it’s not like Cespedes just made a massive sacrifice to play in NY.
It’s like the meme that Jason Heyward turned down more from the Nationals to sign with the Cubs. Because Heyward got a higher AAV ($23M vs. $20M) and, more importantly, not one but two opt outs, the fact is that the deal the Cubs offered was more valuable than what the Nationals were offering despite the nominal $17M difference in overall guarantee.
The price on the tag is the easy, lazy narrative. But often the actual cost of a deal is considerably different from the price on the tag.
You don’t see a problem with the Nationals that they have been turned down on four different players. As far as deferrals, when your making millions and millions of dollars it shouldn’t be an issue. The player is still getting the money. There is definitely a problem in that clubhouse. Cespedes chose NY over Washington because the Mets are in a better position to win a championship. I also think the fit in NY was better.
On deferrals: If you don’t understand the time value of money, I’m not going to take the time to explain it to you.
The Nationals have walked away from a series of negotiations where the players got offers (Heywards; O’Day) or tried to impose conditions (Phillips) that the team was unwilling to match. The one deal where it was clear that the Nationals had a bid that was worth more than what the player actually signed was Zobrist with the Cubs. And Zobrist turned down two other teams (Giants and Mets) that also outbid the Cubs – which tells me it was more about the Cubs and not much about the Nationals.
The consistent theme is that Mike Rizzo and the Nationals have a certain price/value point that they are willing to go to, and they’re not willing to chase a deal past the value point to “win” a negotiation. That’s a sign of a disciplined, focused organization. One can question the values that they are setting going into negotiations, but I can’t fault the team for walking away from deals when the cost gets too high, and I can’t fault the players for taking more valuable offers elsewhere. It’s business.
I know exactly how deferrals work. The fact is major FA are not signing with the Nationals. They offered Heyward,Upton,Cespedes and Zobrist good contracts and they chose to go elsewhere. Your in DC aren’t you? What’s the word on the Nats clubhouse. We all know Pappelbon and Harper are disliked throughout the game.
The Nats offered good contracts. Other teams offered better contracts. The players took the better contract offer. Whatever the perception of Papelbon & Harper, it’s hard to establish a link unless you go into the search assuming that there is one.
And as for “we all know,” well, you would be startled by the number of things that “everyone knew” that turned out to be completely wrong.
Nationals never walked away from a deal with Heyward. That is just sour grapes. Heyward chose the Cubs over the Nationals as well as other teams. But to pretend the Nationals walked away is just false. They wanted him bad.
Fair enough – the Nats never pulled their offer off of the table. But they never offered to increase the deal to match the value of what the Cubs were offering, either.
Not sour grapes – I think Heyward is very good at baseball. Just an observation. He took the more valuable offer, and power to him.
Maybe this offseason. No free agent was more “major” than Max Scherzer last year. He and his agent Scott Boras had no problems accepting the Nationals 7 yrs/$210M offer.
Only player they chose to walk away from was phillips.
Heyward, zobrist, cespedes etc all chose to commit to other teams. They left the nats deals on the table.
Yes – all (except Zobrist) left the Nats’ less valuable offer on the table and accepted more valuable offers from other teams. Not really surprising or unusual except Zobrist – and he left a handful of better offers on the table
Bryce Harper is treated by Nat’s ownership like Alex Rodriguez was treated by Texas ownership. The observation is that Nat’s Baseball is not about the team winning Baseball games, its about Bryce Harper. There’s no chance they win while he’s on that team. Men have no interest in going someplace where the team is expected to baby sit a little boy. Unlike the media, many think it was just when Jonathan Papelbon bitch slapped Bryce Harper. Everyone in that locker room wanted to do the same.
You are correct. In personally speaking with Span, the clubhouse is a complete mess. He said he could have got more, but Cali was a better professional choice.
Your logic ignores inflation. $20 million in 19966 is considerably more valuable than $20 million in 2016. The same trend will apply between 2016 and 2036. Additionally, if I put $20 million in my bank right now, it will increase in value due to interest.
So instead of the players being able to afford 50,000 BMWs they’ll be able to only afford 46,000 BMWs?
This is correct. The fact that the Nats offer was “heavily deferred” makes it doubtful the Nats offer was better than the Mets at all. If the opt out in the Nats deal was after 2 years, and their offer was more heavily backloaded as well, it wouldn’t take a whole lot of deferral to make the proposals equal. To me, “heavy” deferrals means a third of the money was deferred to after the five year playing window. That takes a good $10m or more off the value of the contract. Add in the opt out and backloading, and you get down to $75m real quick.
In act, I can almost guarantee you that Cespedes took the real value of the Nats offer to the Mets and said, beat that. And they did.
You are my favorite poster when it comes to understanding contract terms and consequences. However, you are incorrect to say that an opt out always and only benefits the player. That is all.
Can you explain how? I don’t see it. Let’s say he has an injury marred and awful season this year. He’s not taking the opt out and now the mets are paying for an under performing player for the next two years. If he plays well he opts out and the mets don’t get the guy they signed. I think these opt outs are bogus and teams keep giving them out. On the team side it looks like a lose-lose
Walker and Cabrera are a far better infield duo than Murphy and Tejada both defensively and offensively.Granted,Cespedes leaves a lot to be desired as a cf,but he isn’t terrible.Having Lagares for late inning defense in cf,with Cespedes moving to lf bolsters two positions also.
total agreement with you
Asdrubel has horrible defense. -10.4 UZR/150 and that is this is his best the last 3 years. Should just play Flores at SS.
That’s just dead wrong. Walker is an awful defender (though a very good hitter) and Asdrubal is worse, and old. They are better offensively, I’ll give you that, but defensively it’s not even close. And their OF is going to be worse defensively too.
A new york team with a brand new stadium is clawing to hold a payroll between Kansas City and Seattle. If im a Mets fan and screaming at Manfred to excise the Wilpons from MLB. It’s embarrassing.
After this deal, for the first time ever I’m not angry with the Wilpons. Once our pitching staff is due for a pay day, they better be able to do it. DeGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard maybe Matz/Wheeler too all have $20-30mil per year coming their way.
Still paying for Madoff
This contract will be brought up immediately in negotiations by agents of stars beginning to hit the end of their peak seasons for years to come. Great signing for both Cespedes and Mets.
I don’t think the actual industry (as opposed to guys like Rosenthal who are just playing to get clicks from Mets fans) thinks this is a particularly good deal for the Mets. Unless Cespedes just utterly stinks (or gets hurt) he’s opting out for sure. So this is a $27.5m one year deal. For a guy who normally fWAR’s about 3.0. No opportunity to trade him, either. The QO after this year (assuming they didn’t also handshake that away, which is a distinct possibility) makes it an OK deal, nothing more.
Mets fans have only seen Yo during the best three months of his professional life. He’s not like that usually. What Duda did last year (3.1 fWAR) is about what to expect. With a bad attitude on top of it.
Walker, Cabrera & Cespedes replace Murphy, Campbell & Cuddyer. That upgrade gets an A+ from me.
Who’s Campbell? Isn’t he a 3B?
Anyway, Walker and Murphy is a wash. Cabrera and Flores/Tejada is actually a downgrade according to Steamer, but we’ll call it even because it allows Flores/Tejada to back up elsewhere. Cespedes gets you 2.7 fWAR according to Steamer. Let’s be kind and say 3. Lagares/de Aza gets you about 1.3. So contratulations, you’ve upgraded by somewhat less than 2 wins.
Add in the new relief pitchers, and we can call it a flat 2 wins. And they spent $40m to do it.
And I would add to this that the Steamer projections assume Cespedes will be a LF. If he’s a disaster in center, which is a possibility, that 2.7 fWAR will be down in the 1 point something range.
That’s exactly how a contending team needs to spend money. Those 2 wins mean postseason or no postseason.
Absolutely! Sounds like a lot of Mets fans trolling here. What do you expect them to say? Their fingers are crossed that Harper gets last Palelbon incident w/o further incidence. Papelbon is a complete cancer. Huge mistake. Stores anyday! They had a disappointing off-season. Basically all they got was Murphy who has a professional bat, awful defense. t
The Superman HR show won’t continue. They best pray for no injuries. I’ll take the Mets OF and depth w/ Lagares and Az zaz even with Harper out there. Werth is done, another bad contract. All mouth. Zimmerman is always a question. Pitching staff goes to Mets no doubr, even with Max. Lost Zimmerman… All analysts have Mets SP #1in game. Mets bullpen much improved with Blevins and Edgins returning, Reed retained, Robel and Familia. Big signing Antonio from the Bugs will nullify Harper. In 100 AB against him last year the Nats hit .184 with 39 K’s. 1st time in long time Nats go on as under dogs. Citifield will be rocking when ever Nats come Can’t wait
If Lagares learns to take more walks and get on base enough to be a reliable if unspectacular leadoff and keep the everyday CF job the Mets would be a really tough team to take a series from.
Lagares is a great defender he hasn’t learned to hit major league pitching on a consistent basis. The Mets thought he would be there lead off hitter of the future.
Although it’s really just a one year contract (to stay he will have to take a pay cut), don’t be fooled into thinking it’s all about playing with the Mets. He gave the same lip-service to Oakland and Detroit. He was all about the dollars. He has no worries about a QO. It only has affected the players who are borderline deserving of the qualifying offer amount. If anything, teams are reluctant to give only a one year contract, when they are forfeiting a draft pick, so it should actually ensure that he gets the legitimate multi year offer he seeks. He chose to sign with the Mets because they “showed him the money.”
They also have the best starting pitching on this planet
Wait, was this article about the Dodgers?
My mistake: I read that as “starting pitcher.”
And yet the Mets great pitching staff couldn’t beat the great Chris Young, Yordano Ventura and a shaky Johnny Cueto in the WS last year. HAHA! I loved watching Harvey lose game 5. It was a site to see,
Yes, I forgot. Obviously Cespedes told his agent “I want to sign with the team with the best starters, money be damned!”
Wow, what I call “good clubhouse guy” and “says the things you want to hear good team players say” you say “paying lip service” -why so negative?
Even worse, what if he actually said “I hate this stupid team, trade me” – you’d have an aneurysm. Calm down.
I am very calm. Just tired of the Mets fans being bedazzled. I am a Detroit fan. He didn’t say anything there that he didn’t say here. Seems most fans aren’t aware of that.
So if Cespedes opts out, then the Mets will have $45-55M to spend next offseason. That’s huge too.
Two things wrong with your statement. First,it’s not an if. He will opt out rather than take less money next year. Second, that amount is for the hypothetical next TWO years of his contract. They will only have half of that, and there is no guarantee that the Wilpons will spend it on players next year.
The “less money” you are talking about is $24M a year, only Mig Cab makes that much PER season, dummy.
Name calling: the last resort of the demoralized online commenter.
Not true he’s second to only Miguel currently for position players, there are pitchers making more per year than miggy (I believe price and Greinke are 2 examples)
It won’t be hard for him to surpass a guarantee of only 48MM next off season, regardless. That’s less than Ian Kennedy’s guarantee. He may wait one year to cash in. He won’t wait three.
Stymee is clueless. Stymee thinks he can opt out and get 27.5 million per year or more on a long term deal?? Haha no way. So he is taking a paycut in 2017 no matter what
Unless Cespedes continues to produce at the level he did in 2015 and keeps signing contract with a one year player opt-out! (lol)
On the other hand, If he sucks or gets hurt, the Mets will be holding a bag that could very well cripple the team’s fortunes over the next 3 seasons.
Low risk, high reward situation for Cespedes.
High risk, high reward scenario for the Mets.
Nationals need to sign Austin Jackson. Lmao. He is about the only player that wants to play for them. Lmao. Ha ha
Not if it’s Canadian money LMAO @ justinept
Zorb turned down Dodgers also. No one wants to play for The Nationals love it. Harper going to walk in 2018 n they be rebuilding. Watch lol
duh. we all know Harper is going to walk…
Deferred money? Think Bobby Bonilla. The Wilpon’s when they were flying high with Bernie Madoff and those 18% returns when U S Treasuries were yielding 7% (real smart financial geniuses), to save $5 million deferred Bonilla’s money. Madoff went bust and now the Wilpon’s are paying Bonilla $1.5 million annually for life. So with interest rates @ 2% the $5 million they thought they were saving is now costing them about $35 million. And MLB appointed Fred Wilpon to head up its financial committee. What a joke! These are the worst owners in baseball. By the way let’s see if Cespedes loves New York when another team offers him $150 million next year? He’ll be gone in a NY minute. It’s always about the money. Cespedes wants it and the Wilpon’s are broke.
This should all the craziness about the Wilpons not being good owners. They were smart enough to build a team over paying huge sums of money for so so players, like the Yankees, dodgers, red sox, have done.
thank goodness Ces signed with the Mets…i was tired of hearing all the Mets fans CRY that the owners would not pay or he was going to the Nats.
According to Ken Rosenthal, the Mets can QO Cespedes if he opts out:
amazinavenue.com/2016/1/23/10819616/mets-cespedes-…
Gotta love Sandy.
Lol so funny watching people get so mad at each other on here. Some of you really need to mellow out.
Most White Sox fans are crying over the Yoenis Cespedes signing.
I am not, especially because of the contract itself, the fact that Cespedes desired to remain a Met above all else and other options the White Sox might still have, including a potential trade for Carlos Gonzales.
A power hitting left-handed hitter like Carlos Gonzales might be the ideal fit for the White Sox, not just because he can play RF as well as LF, but because he would provide the ideal bridge in the middle of their lineup between right-handed power hitters Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier. Gonzales would cost significantly less in terms of dollars than what Cespedes is getting from the Mets. “Cargo” has a $38M ($17M in 2016+$20M in 2017+$1M trade bonus) guaranteed commitment over the next two seasons.
If Gonzales could be acquired without the loss of a substantial 2016 roster contributor or any of the White Sox top 3 prospects (Tim Anderson, Carson Fulmer or Spencer Adams) his acquisition would trump that of any other FA, including Cespedes. The White Sox have already traded for two other veterans, Todd Frazier and Brett Lawrie, who also possess 2 years of team control that didn’t cost the organization any “significant” assets from the 2016 active roster or prospects on the level of the three already mentioned. Reports this offseason have had the White Sox as one of the primary teams involved in discussions with the Colorado Rockies because of their depth in left-handed hitting OF’s, which became eve more pronounced following their signing of FA Gerardo Parra.
The White Sox would also have other options in addition to the trade scenario involving an outfielder. They could still make a significant splash in the remaining FA market. Switch-hitting Dexter Fowler would still be a nice upgrade, one who would come considerably cheaper than Cespedes, or even Gonzales. The savings in signing Fowler over Cespedes might allow the White Sox the financial flexibility to also upgrade at another position of need. like shortstop Ian Desmond or right-handed starting pitcher Yovanni Gallardo. A combination of any two of the three from among Fowler, Desmond and Gallardo may actually be the best course of action the White Sox could have taken this offseason in the FA market.
I would trade La Roche and Danks to Rockies for either outfielder, and be happy as hell, period.
Hahahaha
You would think Colorado isn’t making ANY deal with the Sox if it doesn’t include either Fullmer or Adams, and for an oft injured I outfielder with horrible home/road splits, I don’t think I’d go that route if I were them.If it’s for Blackmon,he’s pretty much identical to Fowler,and his home/road splits are atrocity as well.Its starting to look like Fowler or a hope in still a young Garcia is the way they should probably go now.You lose a pick-to the Cubs,by the way- but I’d rather they lose that pick than Fullmer or Adams.Sox Fest next weekend, so hopefully we’ll get a better idea if their intentions.
You would have thought the same regarding the trade for third baseman Todd Frazier, who has more value than “Cargo” because of the position he plays as well as the cheaper two remaining years of his team control which includes a salary of $8.25M for 2016 and one final season of arbitration eligibility in 2017.
Second baseman Brett Lawrie also came surprisingly cheap in terms of return talent going back, two lower level prospects. He agreed to a $4.125M contract last week to avoid an arbitration hearing and still has one more year of arb-eligibility left in 2017 before becoming a free agent.
I’m very surprised by the comments that he took less money. He’s making 75% of the money reportedly in the Nationals offer for 60% worth of the time (if he exercises his option). Does anyone believe that he won’t be able to get a 2 year / $25M contract in 3 years? – which would be equivalent to the 5/100 (not considering deferrals or NPV calculations). Would be very surprised if Cespedes doesn’t wind up earning more thanks to not taking the Nationals deal over the next 5 years – if for no other reason, it will be hard not to do better than a combined $25M over the 2019-2020 seasons unless he completely falls off.
Good signing for mets. All the experts had him never going back to mets. If pitching stays healthy they should be in a fun fight with nationals.
This signing, (which I like), makes the De Aza 1yr/$8 mill signing the worst of the offseason.
I’m still thinking Mike Pelfrey at 2/16MM is worse. I just don’t understand guaranteeing a second year to an injury prone pitcher whose best years have been no better than filler.
But his fastball is up a tick!
The higher AAV and the lack of heavy deferrals means the NPV was likely close to the same. An opt our in 1 year 1 at Cespedes age is far more valuable than one in year 2,
If people can just get past looking at total dollars, since the time value of money is not a constant
The mets will the mets will the mets will rock you sick you spank you frank you…frankly Cepedes data muy frio Es te la tu madre
I do not understand this sentiment that cespedes left a considerable amount of money on the table bc he loves New York. Even if he significantly under performs for the better part of the three years (which will probably happen), it would still be nearly impossible for him to not subsequently sign for 2 years at 25+ with someone else. He would have to get flattened by a semi to not beat washingtons 5 yrs in the end. New York could have been Philadelphia for all he was concerned. Washingtons offer was much weaker, and that’s all that mattered.