New York Mets Restructure Yoenis Cespedes’ Contract
The New York Mets have restructured the contract of Yoenis Cespedes for the 2020 season. Cespedes signed a four-year contract after the 2016 season for 110 million dollars. He was to make 29.5 million dollars in the 2020 season. The early reports have that the reduction will be a significant amount of money. However, there will be incentives added into the contract so Cespedes can potentially recoup the lost money.
La Potencia
Yoenis Cespedes came to the Mets as a 2015 trade deadline acquisition to be the missing piece of the championship pie. With Cespedes in the lineup, the Mets took off and steamrolled through the National League en route to the World Series against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals knocked off the Mets in the World Series. But Cespedes who was a free agent to be was awarded a three-year contract.
In 2016 Cespedes had another great year for the Mets and used his opt-out clause to leverage an even better contract with the Mets. In 2017 the injuries started to pile up for Cespedes. Cespedes was on the injured list twice in 2017 and played in only 81 games. In 2018 Cespedes played in 38 games and did not play at all in 2019.
Cespedes has a career batting average of .274 with 163 HR and 524 RBI. To confirm the importance Cespedes had in the lineup for the Mets he hit a combined 48 HR and drove in 130 runs in 189 games in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
The Contract Issues
The restructuring of the contract is not for bad play or because Cespedes got hurt on the field. His double heel season-ending surgery that he had in 2018 was to keep him off the field for much of the 2019 season. The reason for the contract restructuring is for an off the field injury Cespedes got while on his ranch and was not baseball-related. In May of 2019, Cespedes broke his ankle while walking on his ranch in Port St. Lucie in what was described as a violent fall.
The Mets worked with Major League Baseball and the players union to the restructure Cespedes’ contract. This is due to the non-baseball injury Cespedes suffered this past May. This is more of a settlement than a contract restructure. The Mets wanted to have a hearing with Cespedes who violated his contract with the non-baseball related injury. According to Joel Sherman, the Mets stopped paying Cespedes after he suffered the ankle injury and filed a grievance.
The Mets have recouped part of Cespedes’ 2019 salary. But the big hit will be for the 2020 season. Cespedes’ salary drops from 29.5 million to just 10 million with incentives. The reports are that with incentives Cespedes can make 20 million in the 2020 season.
As for Cespedes he still gets paid for the 2020 season which is his contract year. Had the contract been terminated Cespedes had no chance of getting paid anything close to what the Mets are paying him. The Mets are a win-now team and will insert a healthy Cespedes into their lineup when he is ready.
Heard Cespedes lost a piece of $29M 2019 salary. Bigger loss is his 2020 will go from $29.5M to less than $10M. Can make back in bonuses enough to earn roughly $20M (essentially play to pay). Clearly was worried a grievance could lead to total loss of the $29.5. #Mets
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 13, 2019
Mets Outlook
Despite the looming change of ownership to hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen the Mets are still acting like the same old Mets. The talk around the team is that the Mets are looking to unload high priced contracts. Players like Jed Lowrie(9 M) and Jeurys Familia(22 M) are the players the Mets want to move.
Now with the infusion of cash from the restructure of the Cespedes contract the Mets can definitely bring in another higher-priced player. For a team that was very near to the luxury tax threshold, the newfound money is huge. The Mets still may look to shed money but the previous plan of trading a valuable asset could be altered.
Trading an asset such as Dominic Smith attached with a bad contract of Lowrie does not sound as necessary a move anymore. Smith is the best trading chip the Mets have. He can now be used to bring in a more valuable piece to the team. Instead of just as a throw-in to get some salary relief. Smith only plays first base which is blocked by the Rookie Of The Year winner Pete Alonso.
As for Cespedes if he is hitting his incentives then he is playing and being productive. That should translate into the Mets being a competitive team in 2020.
