The Mets have announced that star outfielder Yoenis Cespedes will undergo season-ending surgery. He had already been placed on the disabled list yesterday due to calcification in both heels.
It is expected that Cespedes will require at least eight to ten months of rehabilitation before he’ll be able to return, assistant GM John Ricco said at today’s press conference (via Mike Puma of the New York Post, on Twitter). That period could end up being extended, depending upon how the veteran responds to treatment.
Needless to say, this is not the news the Mets hoped for in the midst of an already disastrous season. The 32-year-old Cespedes is owed $58.5MM over the next two campaigns. There is a silver lining here, in that Ricco says the club will have an opportunity to attempt to recover some of the funds through an insurance policy (also via a Puma tweet).
Given the recovery timeline presented, and building in a period to get up to baseball speed, Cespedes will likely not be able to return until the middle of the 2019 season at the earliest. While it’s possible the Mets will end up receiving a significant contribution from him next year, the organization will likely enter the offseason operating under the assumption that they need to make alternative plans.
While the news is unfortunate, it also presents questions for all involved. Cespedes had been out for two months with a hip injury — his most recent in a string of maladies involving lower-body muscles. It was not until he had worked back to the majors, though, that the heel issue was identified as an underlying cause. (And, even then, it seemed that the team was not fully aware of the new diagnosis.) The timing of all these developments is certainly suboptimal given that the procedure requires such a lengthy rehab stint.
The organization, which has certainly dealt with its share of controversy over heath situations in the recent past, issued the following explanation in its press release:
“The pain, as a result of the calcifications, has caused him to alter his gait in an attempt to manage the discomfort, which has resulted in stress and injury to other parts of his legs. The consensus among the team doctors and specialists is that all conservative treatment options to manage the pain have been exhausted and that surgery is now recommended.”
Sorting out the medical situation remains a long-term priority, though perhaps that will wait until the team makes some decisions on baseball operations leadership over the offseason.
In the near-term, it’s still not entirely clear what direction the Mets will take at the trade deadline. Ricco says the news on Cespedes won’t really change the outlook, but it certainly could weigh in the balance if the organization decides to consider moving some of its top pitching assets next winter.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Oh Yoenis those great times in Oakland…
Or that great two months in Boston and three months in Detroit. I don’t wish surgery on anyone but he’s just a me first, team second selfish immature player.
Yes that’s why cespedes is the winnigest player in baseball since 2012 he has 120 games over 500
$100MM + well spent
Another great moves from Mets
So much for “Cespedes for the rest of us.”
At least Mets fans still have the “airing of grievances.”
*Feets* of strength
Such a heel…
about time
Would have been great if they did it 3 months ago when he went on the DL
You nailed it on Cespedes lasting less than a week. I am in awe!
I can’t believe he’s making almost 30mil a year
Can someone please explain to me how this organization is not a Circus.
I thought that the Ringling Bros. own the team
A circus has a big top.
They probably haven’t applied for the permits.
A Circus is generally enjoyable to watch with the whole family
Circus’s are entertaining…
Peanuts and popcorn cost a lot less at the circus.
Best part of Citifield is the food concessions. Says all you need to know. You think of the historical parks and the team and history should come first.
They’d have to pay extra for three rings. So far in 56 years, only two to date.
Is there a refund policy in his contract?
Insurance, maybe
According to Morosi on mlb network just now Mets have insurance on David Wright’s deal at least some and will get some on Cespedes.
Insurance companies shouldn’t even give out insurance on these deals.
Ground breaking. Thanks.
The only organization in the sport that talks about insurance policies being a silver lining is the Mets.
Insurance isn’t free, the teams pay huge premiums for insuring baseball players. Insurance is just legalized corporate gambling. They aren’t losing on these payouts.
Of course not. Insurance is proper risk management in every business. You do an analysis, cost v. benefit no different than us with our cars and homes. Premium dictates what we’re willing to self-retain and then risk transfer to tge insurer.
first tebow, now cespedes. the mets season is looking like toast.
How soon before he can start golfing again?
He’ll be caught on camera playing a last round before surgery and then the team’s PR will spin in that he wasn’t at risk of worsening the injuries.
“He’ll be caught on camera playing a last round before surgery. . . “
How fast does one have to be able to run in order to play golf? I was under the impression that most golf shots were made whilst standing still. Never played myself, so perhaps I’m missing something.
“ . . . and then the team’s PR will spin that he wasn’t at risk of worsening the injuries.”
Because it obviously is not possible for someone to be able to play a ‘friendly’ round of golf yet be unable to play baseball at the MLB level.
You ever try standing and hitting the ball with bum heels? Haven’t had that injury but have experienced plantar fasciitis. No way could I play a round even with a cart. Just piling on because while this may be legit, he refuses to do anything other than to please himself. Sox asked him to play right, he refused. He was the perfect right handed bat they needed then and they traded him to Detroit. Just a selfish player in my eyes who’s laughing all the way to the bank.
According to him, he has suffered with this for 15 years, yet it never showed up in any physical, team physician report, trainers, coaches and manager had no idea. No team mates have chimed in stating anything…you really believe this?
He doesn’t have to stop playing golf. He promised the three Stooges that he would use a golf cart and that Noah would drive.
They were fine with such a good plan.
At least they only have him for 2 more seasons after this year…Mets will actually be in a good place financially after the 2020 season when Cespedes, Wright, and Bruce all complete their contracts. Probably should sell off any players who are free agents at the end of 2018. I’m sure Asdrubal, Mesoraco, and Blevins could provide some sort of return.
They had money to spend this offseason and look where they are. They are in a rinse and repeat cycle.
Blevins has been inconsistent this year (to put it nicely) and likely will not return anything. It’s not clear if Meseraco will bring back much and do you really want Pawlecki as your main catcher again with some scrub like Lobaton as backup?
Just yet another 100+ mil dollar contract that was a disaster.
Odd you don’t see any simpletons commenting the owner is cheap in articles like this.
Well, the owner is cheap, but more importantly, the owner doesn’t understand baseball. at all. Investing in a baseball team is very lucrative, of course, unless you’re such a dumb businessman that you let Bernie Madoff take you for billions. Which is what happened, of course. So the Wilpons have no liquid they are relying on the Mets to provide profits and this is what we get: a team in the largest market in the country that conducts itself as cheaply as the Marlins or Padres.
They spent money this year but obviously did not do so wisely. Don’t see how you can pin that on the Wilpons. Also, blaming harm for being taken by Madoff is ridiculous. Many people and organizations were.
what, are you kidding me? it is all on the wilpon’s including:
the mets being in the bottom 5 in management, front office, minor league system, prospects, mlb ready talent, scouting, drafting, mlb age, defense, instructors, coaches…………………………………………………
Plus the mets (and sny) are worth $2Billion and you can’t pin that on the wilpons, what game are you following
Captain hindsight David Cooce would’ve never been swindled by Bernie! Rumor has it he stayed far away from purchasing homes between 2005-2008 as well!
Most baseball clubs breakeven or lose money. Its not a cash flow investment. Any returns come from appreciation in value because it is a scarce asset.
Ummm…no, baseball teams make money. Period. The Mets lost money because of Madoff.
I tried googling “how many MLB teams turn a profit?” and found that the MLB books are not open (usually) to public scrutiny. However, doing some digging and all, Forbes estimates that the vast majority (I saw 75% quoted in a few different articles) turn an operating profit on a yearly basis. Of course, “profit” could be a dollar, but as hoosier2013 alluded to, the appreciation on the value of a franchise is likely what most owners/investors are interested in, and if they’re not losing money along the way, all the better.
It was generally agreed upon, by the way, that while the Cardinals are rated as the 6th most valuable MLB franchise, they usually run on the highest operating profit.
agree with all, the point being of course that you have to
spend $ on scouting, minor league instructors, etc or you
end up with dominic smiths who have no clue when they
get here
Yeah, it’s always amazing to me when somebody will kick out the cash for a franchise and then not staff it with good people. The talent pool that can be drawn from is pretty vast.
Books are closed because of the union. Easy to hide $$ with network partnerships. Just sold their media for $$ to ESPN. Don’t cry for the MLB owners.
Maybe Cespedes never comes back and the Mets can get the insurance $$ from him and David Wright please stop and let the Mets get your insurance $$ too,just maybe these cheap owners will use it to get some better players in here.
Amazing the insurance company keeps taking their business?
I bet the Mets pay higher premiums because of their history of injuries.
Must be something in the Gatorade at Citi field.
I feel horrible. Whoever keeps cutting these insurance deals with the Mets is definitely out of a job.
with the way the Mets recover from injuries, no chance he plays next year either. Trade DeGrom and start the rebuild now. Thor and Matz are still young enough that this can be a quick rebuild if they get a ton (as they should) for DeGrom.
It’s more so the way Cespedes recovers from injury. It’s more likely he returns next Sept when rosters expand than he’s ready by the All Star break.
God hates the Mets, and apparently Tebow as well.
Cespedes and David Wright can hang out now,
Somewhere in that is a great sketch of them hanging out during a game tipsy at a Queens sports bar pontificating “what’s wrong with the Mets” with a cameo by AJ Ramos and Bobby Bonilla picking up the tab.
Don’t forget Rickey.
Wright and Cespedes are two different animals. Wright just had unwanted bad luck; Cespedes embraces it.
Are you the same Mets fans who were all stirred up with your chests puffed out just a few years ago? Clapping and pointing at Cespedes’ shiny jewelry and claiming your Metsy’s had the best mlb rotation since Isringhausen, Pulsipher and Wilson.
sounds like they really got to your head
I can tell why you named yourself “left” because you’re clearly not right
First Tebow. No Yo? What a lost season for the Mets.
“There is a silver lining here, in that Ricco says the club will have an opportunity to attempt to recover some of the funds through an insurance policy”
Oh thank God those poor Wilpons can recoup some money. I can sleep at night now.
Knowing those two money grubbing scum bags will have a few extra scheckles should warm everyone’s heart
Yeah, it won’t be spent on the team. It will be spent on Madoff debt (or pocketed).
How met fans havent attacked the front office with pitch forks is beyond me.
It’s truly baffling the way Mets injuries continue to be seemingly undiagnosed, mistreated, uncommunicated, and otherwise poorly-handled- especially after the overhaul of the medical staff. That said, the Cespedes signing/re-signing was a good faith attempt to invest in the team- something the owners/management are continually criticized for refusing to do. When they signed him, he did not have a significant injury history, and he had made the team measurably better when he was on the field. It’s unfortunate that this is how things have played out, and it isn’t casting either or the player or the team in a very good light at the moment.
Not baffling at all. Mets are too cheap to put together a complete team with any kind of depth, and are too cowardly to own up to it. They put lipstick on their pig roster and keep false amounts on the payroll so it looks just bad, not the scam that it truly is. When it falls apart they blame fate. 27 years of bad luck. Yet, their fan base seems to bite year after year after year. They even bought the Madoff nonsense, which was a minor set of payments, and, in any event, isn’t even indirectly related to what the Mets spend.
There is nothing wrong with the Mets medical staff (they come from the preeminent sports medical facility in the world, HSS). It’s the team culture. When your roster is a scam, you’re not going to encourage the few guys who are real to miss time unless it’s serious. By that time, it’s usually systemic as well. Considering their short term penny pinching mentality in all areas, any results other than what they’ve had would baffle me.
Now he can get the surgery and gear up for another contract in a few years when he’ll be fit as a fiddle.
So the question becomes that, once healed can he go back to the OF or does he need to move to 1B.
If the OF, then it’s easier to cover him for next year (although it looks like a lost year to me either way and I think Degrom should be traded if they can get a haul of prospect/young major league talent). They have Bruce, Conforto, Nimmo, Lagares- not the greatest OF but adequate while awaiting a mid season return from Cespedes (8-10 most would actually mean between March and May, but I think the All Star break is more realistic given it’s the Mets).
If he has to move to 1B, that’s problematic. They can’t really acquire a starting quality 1B while knowing that Cedpedes is going to take the spot, but what they have currently in the organization is nothing you can feel comfortable with for the position.
It’s Tebow Time
Yeah, in the hospital.
I continue to be amazed, amused, baffled and stunned at how these things play out in Metville. Are they really now just finding out that he had feet problems?
Just another side show. Cespedes isn’t the problem, not his injuries or even that he was given a big long term contract. Every team has contracts like these. The problem is an organization so cheap that they only signed one major FA in the last decade, and only did that in a tortured 2 year process that will have them paying 5 mm more per year than if they just did what any normal organization would have done after a WS appearance with young ascending pitching staff. Give your two best hitters market money and then look to improve the team with upgrades. Not look to cut payroll and send one, and nearly the other, packing.
The Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs could have done nothing year and after year waiting for Ellsbury, Sandoval/Rameriz or Heyward to live up to their contracts (Cespedes is still more likely to give value than any of those). Somehow, they got over it, and put their team together each year so that injuries or under performance by a few guys is not fatal. In fact, it’s not even meaningful.
That’s not entirely fair, the Cubs are able to withstand Heyward’s contract in large part because they completely tanked for multiple seasons. And it’s not like the Mets are one or two big contracts away from being a contender.
The bigger problem is that when the (vast) majority of your payroll is on the DL it is hard to compete. And there is really no good explanation for that or easy fix.
I just looked, and once Cabrera is traded Blevins and Swarzak will be the highest paid players on Mets active roster (unless Bruce or Frazier returns first). That’s just depressing.
Yes, the Cubs tanked as a part of their rebuilding, no doubt. But they also spent $$ while rebuilding to advance the rebuild. $$ in the draft, $$ in IFAs, $$ in ML FAs they would subsequently trade (Arietta and Russell were both acquired in part with pieces signed as ML FAs). Then, when their “window” opened up, they spent even more $$ to fill in the holes and upgrade weaknesses. That’s why Heyward being a bust was no more than a footnote. Not just because they tanked.
All teams have injuries. The Wilpons like to feed the “bad luck” (oh, what could we do) narrative. It’s complete BS. What you do is NOT rely on players who are “odds on” to be hurt based on history, you strengthen your weaknesses so no single area of the team has to carry it, and you have enough depth so that you don’t have to choose between players playing hurt (leading to more systemic injuries) or giving up on the season..
BTW, who other than Cespedes being on the DL has caused the Mets to be so bad??? The Mets primary starters have been healthier than most starting staffs, and those are their elite players regardless of what the payroll says. You can’t seriously count Wright (not real payroll), d’Arnaud or Lagures as injured. Frazier and Bruce? Each has over 200 ABs already this year. Were the Mets great when they were in the lineup? Vargas and Ramos? Are we suffering because they aren’t pitching right now? Or are we relieved they’re not? What bad luck in terms of injuries as befallen this team?? If there isn’t enough payroll on the field, it’s because for a big market team the payroll should be at least 75-100 mm more than it is. That’s what should be depressing.
One, I’m not saying bad luck. Once, twice is bad luck. The Mets have a pattern at this points of getting torn apart by injuries, but it is not one that is easily diagnosed or fixed. Last season, it was fire the trainer, even though a bunch of the injuries couldn’t remotely be prevented by him.
Two, the Arrieta acquisition falls into the category of either great scouting, or dumb luck. Nothing to do with money.
Third, I understand and agree Wright doesn’t really count, by why not Lagares and D’Arnaud?
Finally, the Mets primary starters have not been healthy, Syndergaard has made 13 starts, so he’s missed a little less than half the season. He’s their clear cut #2 starting pitcher on a team designed around it’s rotation.
Finally, the Mets payroll as of opening day was 155 million. Let’s subtract Wright’s 20 million. That’s 135 million. You are delusional thinking the Mets should be spending 75-100 million more than that, it would put them as the highest spending club in baseball. Yes, they play in NY, but they aren’t the Yankees in terms of revenue. They were valued as something like the 7th most valuable major league team at around $2 billion, half of what the Yankees are worth, and not in the same range as the Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers. The payroll should be higher, but only $35-$50 million higher than the $135 million number.
No, it wasn’t sure fire the trainer. Or it would have stopped this year when he’s gone. The trainer is a product of the culture, and that remains, with a new trainer.
The principle piece in the in season Arietta trade going to Baltimore was a Scott Feldman, who was signed as FA by the Cubs prior to that season to be a trade piece. Of course, scouting and luck play a part. But Arietta was always a talent, and the Baltimore wasn’t giving him away until they needed a starting pitcher and the Cubs had a proven one to give them.
Both d’Arnaud and Lagares fall into a category of getting hurt every year, and not establishing that they’re starter quality players when they are healthy. Travis has another issue – he’s not big enough (bone structure) to be a regular C. These guys are penciled in because the Wilpons are too cheap to fix C and CF and these guys pass the name recognition test.
The missed starts by the top 4 starters (deGrom, NS, ZW and Matz) are fewer than all but a handful of teams. Nobody has a staff that goes injury free any more even if its maintenance. Again, have we been good when they were all healthy (which is most of the season)???
Before the Wilpons took over the team, those value figures would look a lot different. When George bought the Yankees for 10 mm, the Mets were worth more than 3 times that, as an offer in that amount was turned down. For the first 3 decades of their existence the Mets had higher attendance and higher TV and radio audiences than the Yankees – or any other team in the game.
Of course RIGHT NOW the Mets revenues can’t support a 210-225 mm payroll. So what, fund it anyway, OR at least give the GM a budget he can use on payroll or the farm system or whatever. If you’ve followed baseball, you know the Red Sox were a small market team before the Henry/LL regime and couldn’t fund their then existing 50 mm payroll. The Dodgers were broke under McCourt and couldn’t fund their middling payroll, risking bankruptcy. The Giants were the poster child of a small market team, before they found owners who sought to exploit their wider regional market. The Yankees since GS bought the team have never taken money out of it, even though he lost droves for over a decade. The Cubs also lost huge money in the early years of their new ownership. Even teams with large markets and the opportunities they present need to spend money to make money — and that increases the funds for payroll and franchise value.
OK, the poor Wilpons have no outside monies to fuel the Mets resurgence. Well, they can at least put their SNY profits back into the team, no? Did you know SNY (majority Wilpon owned) is far more profitable than YES? How is that possible when their only asset of note is televising the Mets, and YES gets to televise the Yankees?
First,Madoff,and now Cespedes.The Wilpon’s really love giving millions to the wrong people!
True story: a player’s health insurance premiums skyrocket whenever a they sign a deal with the Mets.
through all the mess with wright, tebow and cespedes, the mets are still paying bobby bonilla.
And Saberhagen, and the Wilpons count it toward their payroll so (adding in Wright) it looks mid-market vs small market.
Mets are a mess
They need to simply drop this contract and hope someone claims him. It’s the only way out. He will grab all the headlines in March with his “miraculous recovery” just in time for spring training.