Palladino: Legitimate Questions Continue To Fly Around Cespedes
By Ernie Palladino
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With the Mets, the conversation always seems to come back to Yoenis Cespedes.
Will he or won't he sign with them? Are the Mets really interested in having him back or not?
All legitimate questions, made even moreso by two of the more recent offseason deals of the past week. With Chris Davis re-upping in Baltimore at seven years, $161 million, and Justin Upton signing with Detroit on Monday for $132.75 million over six years, the Cespedes market shrunk by two teams.
Though many are still thought to be in the running, including the White Sox, Rangers, Astros, Cardinals, and Angels, the idea that some sort of Cespedes Sweepstakes exists is a pure fiction of the 30-year-old Cuban's own mind. They all seem interested, but not enough to climb all over each other to be first to offer the long-term deal the Mets' two-month hero of 2015 so dearly wants.
MORE: Keidel: It's Time For The Yankees To Enter The Cespedes Fray
This is why Sandy Alderson appears so cagey at the moment. He supposedly has a three-year, $60 million offer on the table. Waiting out the market could turn out to be a great move for the GM, not because of the dollar figures -- still a nice chunk of change -- but the years. With a load of questions about Cespedes' motivational challenges over the long haul, a deal like that would keep him playing at a high level for the term of the contract.
That would benefit the Mets greatly, even if Cespedes never again went on a run like those incredible, unfathomable two months before the postseason. All they would need is for him to play a consistent center field, something he displayed before he kicked Alcides Escobar's first stroke of the World Series into an inside-the-park homer, and bang 35 or so well-spaced, but well-placed homers.
Unfortunately, short-term deals don't really benefit the player. Cespedes wants his money now, and for a long time. As he proved in the postseason, he's more than capable of going from white hot to blue cold in a flash. A prolonged downswing in the second or third year of a deal like that would hurt his marketability in his next free agent shot.
Then again, if he played up to his potential, imagine the price tag he'd command at a still-spry 33.
Players don't generally bet on themselves, however. Injuries and the ups and downs of the game leave too much to chance for that kind of thinking.
Still, Alderson's deal leaves room for sweetening. He could throw in another year, a few million more, or an opt-out clause after the first season to make it slightly more attractive while still maintaining its short-term character. But that leaves the question of whether Alderson is truly interested in having Cespedes back.
If he isn't, he should say so now and be done with it. Take the criticism as it comes -- and it will come. But it will be nowhere near the outcry that rolls down on him if one of those other teams sign him for three or four years for a few bucks more.
That would unmask his supposed interest as mere charade, and who needs that? After their magical, improbable run to the World Series after so much losing, the last thing the Citi Field fans need is a big bag of wool pulled over them.
But if Cespedes never does get the long-term gig and signs with the Mets, Alderson will look like a genius for waiting out the market and landing a player that not only proved himself a game-changer last year, but a playoff-maker.
As usual, the questions continue to fly around Cespedes.
And they're all legit.
Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino
