Keidel: It's Time For The Yankees To Enter The Cespedes Fray
By Jason Keidel
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Fair or not, nearly all athletes -- heck, all humans -- are judged by their latest action.
And if there's a lasting impression of Yoenis Cespedes in New York City, it's of a suddenly solemn star, gelded by the bright lights and big moments of the World Series.
The same fans who cheered his Herculean run through the summer of 2015, when he literally lifted the Mets to the NL pennant, were groaning and speed-dialing sports radio stations, imploring the Wilpons to let him walk the free agent plank.
There's a finality to almost all things Metropolitans. When they didn't win the World Series last autumn, there was a sense of abject resignation among the faithful. The Mets haven't won a Fall Classic in 30 years, and hadn't played in one in 15 years. So who knows when the baseball gods will grin upon Flushing again?
Sure, the Mets are lathered with the best young pitching in the sport. But these are the Mets, you see, and you have to strike when the alchemy is just right. If not, the frugal franchise will let high-end talent walk, or sign low-end stars to swollen contracts.
But there's another club in the five boroughs which should welcome Cespedes. It resides in that glittering, baseball ATM machine in the Bronx.
While Cespedes's contract demand -- roughly $150 million over six years -- would usurp the bulk of the Mets' payroll, it fits flawlessly into the Yankees' epic war chest.
What if Cespedes doesn't live up to his contract?
Then he will simply join Jacoby Ellsbury and a conga line of former All-Stars in that regard. Without getting all existential, few players are ever worth the bloated deals they sign in the Bronx. Access to excess is the hallmark of the Pinstripes.
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The Yankees rake in so much money, a $150 million hit would barely ripple down the halls and walls of the executive suites. And if Cespedes plays once again like the baseball Kraken that carried the Mets to the playoffs, they will have accomplished two crucial goals -- improve their club and diminished the Mets, their heated, hated neighbors from Queens.
The Yankees were in an odd position last October -- afterthoughts. While they technically reached the postseason, they scored just as many runs as the Red Sox, Phillies, and Rockies -- zero.
Meanwhile, the Mets went on an enchanted run that commanded the entire city's attention. You couldn't walk down the streets of Gotham and not see some man, woman, or child swathed in orange and blue. This was, for the first time in a long time, a Mets town.
Not only did the Mets keep winning, they kept minting celebrities -- Dark Knight, Thor, Superman. Daniel Murphy was joining Reggie Jackson among the immortals.
And that, as much as missing the World Series, had to chafe the Yanks. The ultimate, inverted exacta is bombing in the playoffs, then turning on the TV to see the other guys flourishing.
Not to mention singing Cespedes makes good baseball sense. The Yankees have a dearth of dominant left-handed hitters. Other than A-Rod, it's hard to think of another right-handed bat of import. Cespedes adds instant heft to a lefty-dominated lineup. While he wouldn't play most games in center, he would do ample damage from either corner of the outfield. And if the Yanks ever ship out Brett Gardner, they would have a more gifted player to take his place.
Not to mention, Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira are coming off the books after the 2016 season. Then a phalanx of aging and overpaid players are leaving over the next few years, from A-Rod to Brian McCann to CC Sabathia.
Signing Cespedes is win-win for the Bronx Bombers. Perhaps they're playing coy now to knock a few bucks off the price tag, but the Steinbrenners find nothing funny about playing second fiddle to the Mets.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
