Palladino: Reaction To Cespedes Scare Speaks Volumes About His Value To Mets
By Ernie Palladino
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If Terry Collins absolutely had to see the postseason flash before his eyes, better it should have happened now and not a week from now.
That latter scenario would have brought us right into Friday's Game 1 of the NLDS. Regardless of whether the Mets played it at Citi Field or Dodgers Stadium, they would have had to do it without their undisputed star hitter.
That third-inning fastball the Phillies' Justin De Fratus zinged off Yoenis Cespedes' left middle and ring fingers Wednesday night caused quite a stir as it was, even as X-rays showed no break. But he'll still miss a game or two -- or three -- as the swelled bruises recede.
It's easy to see how the timing of this couldn't have been better if it had to happen at all. Take out a few days now, and he misses the tail end of a rather meaningless regular season. Take out a few days then, and a spot in the NLCS becomes nothing more than a distant vapor.
By now, the importance of Cespedes to the lineup should be painfully obvious to anyone who has paid attention since the Cuban slugger's July 31 arrival. Regardless of the amnesia that has afflicted some otherwise intelligent members of the baseball community, the Mets were hardly thriving before Cespedes showed up.
Hanging on by a thread, perhaps, thanks to a pitching rotation that appears ready for the big stage. But coming together, as former Mets manager Bobby Valentine asserted in a Wednesday morning interview on WFAN?
Ready to make a run?
Hardly.
They had lost three series to the Cardinals, Nationals, and Padres, and split one with the Dodgers coming out of the All-Star break. After that last loss to San Diego, they sat just two games above .500.
Unless one assumed Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, and Bartolo Colon were going to throw complete-game shutouts the rest of the way, in no manner did those Mets resemble the NL East champions who would fight the Dodgers for home field advantage.
Even the additions of Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson, though helpful, could not fully fill the holes in Collins' lineup. And, in truth, they were never the players who could create the stuff of a division run.
It took the trade for Cespedes to bring that all together. It's why Sandy Alderson, once the town punch line, should now show prominently in the Executive of the Year conversation.
Whatever Valentine might have seen before that, what happened afterward can't be denied. Finish the sweep of the Nationals. Sweep the Marlins. Sweep the Rockies. By the time they hit their stumble against Pittsburgh, they had gone from a team barely good enough to hang off Washington's shoulder to a division leader, 4½ games in front.
A virtual care package came from Washington, of course, as the Nationals imploded even before Jonathan Papelbon applied hand to throat of Bryce Harper. But Cespedes and his home run swing brought a potency that allowed the Mets to make capital of their neighbors' problems.
Small wonder, then, why Twitter exploded with voices too close to the ledge shortly after De Fratus' pitch ricocheted off that left hand.
Cespedes is just too valuable to lose in a playoff series.
If he had to get hurt, better that it happened now.
A week later, and Collins' dreams of making a deep, postseason run would certainly have vanished into thin air.
