{"id":35909,"date":"2020-08-02T21:37:12","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T01:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=35909"},"modified":"2020-08-02T21:37:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T01:37:12","slug":"yoenis-cespedes-opts-out-for-reminder-of-2020-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/08\/02\/yoenis-cespedes-opts-out-for-reminder-of-2020-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoenis Cespedes Opts Out for Reminder of 2020 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cespeyo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yoenis Cespedes<\/a><\/strong> did not show up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/NYM\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Mets&#8217;<\/a> game Sunday afternoon against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/ATL\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Braves<\/a>, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen announced that Cespedes decided to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/29584055\/mets-unable-get-contact-yoenis-cespedes\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opt-out for the remainder of the season<\/a> due to COVID-19 related issues.<\/p>\n<p>Cespedes was not in the lineup after playing in five straight games following his return after nearly a two-year absence. Early in the game, the Mets released a statement saying their attempts to contact him &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/timbhealey\/status\/1289975903502491648\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have been unsuccessful<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Mets sent a security team to the hotel and found his room to be empty. They then learned through his agent that he had decided to opt-out.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;It was surprising, without question&quot; <\/p>\n<p>Brodie says the Mets were surprised by Yoenis Cespedes opting out, but they support his decision <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OFHf3VSa0E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/OFHf3VSa0E<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; SNY (@SNYtv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SNYtv\/status\/1290021961209245696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 2, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Cespedes&#8217; Mets Career<\/h2>\n<p>In what was the final year of Cespedes&#8217; contract, the slugger struggled to start the season. He had a pair of home runs but was hitting .161. He also struck out in 15 of his 34 plate appearances this year.<\/p>\n<p>Cespedes returned to the team after having surgery on both his heels in 2018. He then broke his ankle after an incident with a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/01\/03\/yoenis-cespedes-ankle-fractures-came-during-incident-with-wild-boar\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wild boar<\/a>\u00a0the following year. This was all after the Mets acquired Cespedes at the trade deadline in 2015. He helped the Mets advance to the World Series and hit 17 home runs in the final 57 games of the regular season.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cespedes hits a monster three-run homer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1-JH0oQwVMM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Cespedes then signed with the Mets for three years and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/17975780\/yoenis-cespedes-opts-deal-new-york-mets\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opted out<\/a> of his contract following the 2016 season. However, he later agreed to a new deal with New York for four years and ended up playing in a total of 127 games, which he was supposed to receive $110,00,000. The Mets then <a href=\"https:\/\/metsmerizedonline.com\/2019\/12\/yoenis-cespedes-contract-restructured.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reconstructed Cespedes&#8217; contract<\/a> before the start of the 2020 season as a result of his ankle injury.<\/p>\n<h2>Impact on Team<\/h2>\n<p>While the Mets will miss his power bat, it will allow. playing time for some younger players. Yoenis Cespedes had yet to play the field and took time away from players like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithdo02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dominic Smith<\/a><\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gimenan01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Andres Gimenez<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> This will allow New York to let <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisjd01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">J.D. Davis<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/canoro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robinson Cano<\/a><\/strong>, and Smith to get opportunities as the DH. The Mets also acquired <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hamilbi02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Billy Hamilton<\/a><\/strong> in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mccoveychronicles.com\/2020\/8\/2\/21351608\/san-francisco-giants-mets-billy-hamilton-jordan-humphreys\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trade<\/a> with the San Francisco Giants earlier Sunday morning before knowing about Cespedes&#8217; decision.<\/p>\n<p>Main Image<br \/>\n<a id=\"iBHUngmOTP9rUPYodyVVkw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1262826093\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'iBHUngmOTP9rUPYodyVVkw',sig:'sBZ3CO_oz7hylLA94FPGdRW0q5PYrMRDwJ8qyE22wHI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1262826093',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Yoenis Cespedes did not show up for the New York Mets&#8217; game Sunday afternoon against the Atlanta Braves, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen announced that Cespedes decided to opt-out for the remainder of the season due to COVID-19 related issues. Cespedes was not in the lineup after playing in five straight games following his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3428,"featured_media":35945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3946,532],"class_list":["post-35909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","tag-new-yok-mets","tag-yoenis-cespedes"],"modified_by":"Jared Cantatore","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}