Right now, there are two people who are realistically standing in the way of Yoenis Cespedes returning to the Mets. No, it’s not Fred and Jeff Wilpon. It’s Michael Conforto and Curtis Granderson.
Like it or not, Sandy Alderson was right when he said Cespedes isn’t a centerfielder. While Cespedes grades out as an elite leftfielder, he’s just not good in center. Last year, he had a -3.2 UZR and -4 DRS while playing center. For his career, his UZR in center is -12.6, and his DRS there is -17. While the Mets were willing to move him in and out of center to take advantage of platoon splits for Juan Lagares while not forcing Conforto to face lefties. While it was rough at times, it did seem to work.
However, that was over the course of three months. Cespedes’ defensive numbers in center are unsustainable over a full season. I don’t buy the argument he only needs to play there two years. He’s already established he shouldn’t be playing there now. No, if the Mets want to re-sign him, he needs to go either left or right. That begs the question, why haven’t the Mets made room for him?
Specifically, I’m asking why the Mets haven’t explored trading Granderson. Last year, Granderson hit .259/.364/.457 with 26 homers and 70 RBI from the leadoff spot. He was a finalist for the Gold Glove in rightfield. On a team where everyone was dropping like flies, he played 157 games, and really, he was the only credible major league bat in the lineup for far too long stretches of time. His 5.1 WAR ranked him as a top five rightfielder in all of baseball last year. He has a reasonable two years $31 million remaining on his contract. One way of looking at this is saying he’s too valuable to be traded.
Another is to say he’s at his peak value, which is the precise time you want to trade players. Granderson is a year removed from a .237/.326/.338 campaign. The year before that he hit .229/.317/.407. He had pronounced splits last year hitting .183/.273/.286 against lefties and .280/.388/.504 against righties. His 5.1 WAR last year was the highest it had been since 2011. He’s going to be 35 on Opening Day next year.
Right now, the Mets still project to have Eric Campbell make the Opening Day roster until they sign another 1B/OF. The Mets still talk about adding another reliever. Their farm system took a big hit last year. Couldn’t trading Granderson address one, two, or all three of these needs? Isn’t that what smart front offices do? Don’t they trade away a player a year too early rather than a year too late?
Also keep in mind,this is a heavy left-hand hitting team. Trading Granderson and re-signing Cespedes would balance that out a bit. Isn’t this something worth exploring?
Personally, I’d like to see the Mets keep Granderson. I’m a big fan of his on and off the field. With that said, trading Granderson now may be the right thing to do. His value won’t be any higher, and the Mets have some needs to address. The Mets do not want to be paying for Granderson during his possible decline.
It might be time to trade Granderson.
Editor’s Note: this article first appeared on metsmerizedonline.com
I can make a case that Antonio Bastardo was a bad or unnecessary free agent signing. He walks to many guys. Following his ERA+, he’s an every other year player, and next year is his bad year. The Mets were well represented from the left-hand side with Jerry Blevins, Dario Alvarez, and Josh Edgin. Last year, Bastardo had less innings pitched than appearances.
However, I’m not going to make that case. Bastardo appears to be that rare cross-over non-closer lefty reliever. For his career, Bastardo allowed lefties to hit .178/.277/.319 and righties to hit .211/.308/.332. He had a 1.198 WHIP and a 11.0 K/9. He limits the long ball. He has been durable.
No, I’m again going to question this front offices’ obsession with steroids players. Bastardo is the third steroids player the Mets have signed this offseason. Bartolo Colon and Asdrubal Cabrera are the others. On top of that, the Mets offered Jenrry Mejia arbitration. This is the same Mejia who was suspended twice last year. The same Mejia the Mets were reportedly angry and disappointed with for the suspensions.
How can the Mets say one cross word about Mejia when they keep bringing other steroid users into the organization? It’s hypocritical. It’s apparent the Mets don’t care about steroids. They care about players getting caught.
If you think I’m going too far with this, or you don’t care, please consider this tweet:
Hey Antonio Bastardo, remember when we competed for a job in 2011. Thx alot. #ahole
— Dan Meyer (@Dmy53) August 5, 2013
That’s right. A roided up Bastardo beat a presumably clean pitcher for a job. Meyer never pitched in the big leagues again, and Bastardo has a two year $12 million contract. Of course it came from the Mets.
They love players who use steroids upo until the time they get caught. Then they’ll tell you how much they hate it. Hypocrites.
Overall, it’s apparent that the Mets do not see Yoenis Cespedes as a part of their 2015 plans. They’ve gone in another direction to address their offseason needs. While it’s rumored the Mets have a 2-3 year offer out to Cespedes, it’s apparent he’s not taking it. The Mets could increase that offer to sign Cespedes, but they do not seem inclined to do it. Well it seems the Mets resolve is going to be tested.
As Ken Rosenthal reports, the Nationals are pursuing Cespedes. Apparently, Cespedes is the Nationals next option after they missed out on Jason Heyward and Justin Upton. They are still interested even after trading for Ben Revere. The Nationals have made Cespedes an offer that’s less than the six year $132.75 million deal Upton received.
If Cespedes joins Daniel Murphy in Washington, there’s going to be a riot amongst the fan base. The backlash is going to be very ugly. Signing Cespedes could theoretically tip the scales in the Nationals favor with them now being favorites to win the NL East. With all that said, the Mets have to stay the course.
Alderson believes Cespedes is a square peg in a round hole. Essentially, he doesn’t see Cespedes as a centerfielder, and he’s right. What you’re willing to put up with for three months may not be what you will put up for a full season, let alone for three to five years.
If you truly believe Cespedes isn’t worth a four year deal, and he can’t play CF, you have to pass. You pass even if it means he goes to your biggest threat in the division. If you think Cespedes is not a CF, and you think he will be a problem if he receives a contract longer than three years, who better than your biggest competition to make that mistake?
Most Mets fans will not agree with this decision. At the end of the day, that’s not Sandy Alderson’s main concern. His concern is to build a winner in 2016 and beyond. There may be mitigating factors, but at the end of the day, you try to make things work that fit into your parameters. If they stray from that, you need to walk away. Unfortunately, it seems like when the Mets walk away again, their #3 and #4 hitters will play in Washington.
The Mets need to ignore that fact and move on. They need to not care where Cespedes winds up. They need to do what is best for this team. They need to spend more money in other areas to improve the team in other ways.
Ultimately, the Mets are just going to have to stay the course.
With Daniel Murphy signing with the Nationals, my son has to find a new favorite Met. Honestly, I didn’t steer him in the direction of Murphy. I wouldn’t because I knew he might be gone. Initially, his favorite player was Lucas Duda, but somewhere that changed.
Some of it might have been my personal feelings towards Murphy. I was always a huge fan of his. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Duda, but Murphy was my favorite Met.
Now, Matt Harvey is my favorite Met. He was the one that gave us all hope. I will always appreciate him for what he did in Game Five of the World Series. With that said, I don’t want him to become my son’s favorite player. The main reason is Harvey will be a free agent in 2019. That’s not that far away, and I would prefer for him to root for a player who will be around longer than that. With that said, I’ve narrowed it down to three choices:
I honestly picked these three guys because they broke into the majors last year, and as a natural extension, should be around the longest. Each have their own separate pull.
I like Matz because my son and I attended his first ever game. He’s a lifelong Mets fan who actually became a Met. He’s a left-handed pitcher, and any motivation I can use to get my son to throw left-handed is an added benefit.
Thor has the cool nickname, and he looks like the real deal. It’s easy to get a kid excited about a guy who throws 100 MPH and strikes a lot of guys out. I could also play this Pedro Martinez clip incessantly:
If you don’t think a two year old boy wouldn’t find it fun and hilarious to run around screaming, “THOR!” all day, you’re nuts.
The last option is Conforto. Conforto burst on the scene and played better than fans either reasonably or inreasonably expected. He hits left-handed as my son does now (Murphy left an impression). He’s an everyday player, which is a huge benefit. First, pitchers are more prone to have injuries that could leave them out for extended time or possibly be career threatening. Most importantly, when I bring my son to a game, it is more likely than Conforto will play. I don’t have to count every five days and hope there are no spot starts or skipped starts so he can see his favorite player.
With that said, I think I’m going to spend Spring Training trying to convert my son into a Conforto fan. If the past is any judge, he will select a player on his own. With that said, he may very well choose Conforto as his new favorite Met all on his own. That would be even better.
No matter what happens, I’m playing that Thor clip constantly because to me having him scream “THOR!” will be hilarious. I ask for my wife’s forgiveness in advance.
Honestly, I believe it’s too early to start naming Opening Day starters, but teams are already doing it. I guess when you’re the Diamondbacks it’s easy. When you’re the Mets with a loaded pitching staff, it’s a much more interesting question.
The first choice would be Jacob deGrom. He had the best year out of any Mets starter last year. He was the story of last year’s All Star Game. He was terrific in the NLDS. Also, he was supposed to be the Game Sux starter. Starting him in Kansas City would be the Mets way of saying we’re picking up where we left off, and we’re heading back to the World Series.
The next choice is Matt Harvey. In many ways, he’s the presumptive ace. He’s the guy that burst on the scene in 2013 giving the Mets fans hope this all was coming. He’s another year removed from Tommy John surgery, and the second year back is normally when a pitcher excels. He ended his year with an incredible Game Five performance. Starting Harvey in Kansas City is saying you’re not going to beat us again.
With all that said, I start Noah Syndergaard on Opening Day. The message is plain and simple. We’re not backing down this year from anyone. This was a 23 year old rookie pitcher who toed the rubber at the first ever World Series game at Citi Field, and this was his first pitch:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FMbpt_TtDro
When the Royals complained about the pitch, Thor told them to meet him at the mound. His presence on the mound alone is saying to the baseball world the Mets are intimidated by no one, and they’re back fighting to win 2016. If you have a problem with that, you know where to find them. The story line won’t be about the Royals getting their rings. Instead, it’ll be about how the Royals will handle Thor.
We want the 2016 season to be about the Mets and their pitching staff. We want it to be about the Mets responding to last year’s World Series loss by beating and intimidating other teams. You want all of baseball to look at this staff and wonder how they’re going to beat the Mets. This needs to be the story from day one. Let Terry Collins explain he’s starting the guy who beat the Royals last year. However he presents it, the most important thing is that we all know the Mets are going out there looking to get into their opponents’ heads with their pitching.
That starts day one. That’s why you start Thor on Opening Day.
Yesterday, the Cincinnati Reds announced they are going to honor Pete Rose this summer with induction in the Reds Hall of Fame, retirement of his number 14, and a statue. For some reason, MLB approved Rose’s presence at these events. Even more ponderous was the Reds wanting to do this for him.
I understand he is the Hit King. In many ways he’s synonymous with Reds baseball. He had 3,358 hits with the Reds alone. However, he was also the Reds manager. As the Reds manager, he bet on the games. There’s no proof he bet against the Reds, but then again, it took over 25 years to definitively prove he bet on baseball while he was a player. I still find it naive to believe he never bet against the Reds or found a convenient time to not bet on them.
Rose managed the Reds until mid-way through the 1989 season. Later that year, he was banished from baseball. That year the Reds finished in fifth places with a 79-87 record. Rose was 59-66. Do you know what happened in 1990? They won the World Series. I’m not saying it’s definitive, but it shouldn’t be ignored.
What also shouldn’t be ignored was between 1985 – 1988, the years he was a full time manager, his teams always finished in second and never won 90 games. While they were in second place, they never came close to winning the division. I know Lou Piniella is a good manager, but was he really good enough to be the missing piece? Probably not.
Let’s examine the 1987 season because that was the year the Reds got closest to winning the division under Rose’s tuteledge. That team jumped out of the gate going 15-7 in April. The next three months they played around .500 ball before collapsing in August with a 9-20 record. The Reds entered that fateful month of August with a two game lead in the division. After August was over, they were in third place, six games back, and three games under .500.
Keep in mind that this is dispositive of nothing. In fact, in some ways that was the August script between the 2015 Mets and Nationals. However, it still makes you question if more was at play here than just one really bad month. For example, the Recs went 1-5 against the Giants in August. Absent those August games, they were 6-6 against the division winning Giants.
Does it matter to you that John Franco led the league in games finished in 1987 with 60? How about the fact he repeated the feat in 1988 finishing 61 games? How about the fact that from 1985 – 1988, Franco appeared in 67, 74, 68, and 70 games? Does it matter that no other manager used him in as many appearances or to finish as many games?
How do we judge him playing a young and healthy Eric Davis only 129 games despite him being the team’s best player? How many teams have a 34 year old catcher and 36 year old RF lead the team in games played? Why were the Reds the only team in baseball with a four men rotation that year?
I could go on and on. However, hopefully, you get my point. Seemingly, Rose made a lot of strange choices. We don’t know if these decisions came about organically, or if these decisions made based upon other factors. The only thing we know for sure is Pete Rose was betting on baseball back then. We also know that once Rose was gone, the Reds won the World Series.
After all that, he’s getting honored by the Reds. He’s getting a statue. Other than his son, he’s the last Reds player to ever wear the number 14. It took 25+ years to discover he bet on baseball. I’m hoping it’s not another 25 years before we find out he bet against the he Reds.
At that point, what do you do with the number 14 and the statue? Will it be too late to take it down? All I do know is the Reds are sticking their necks out there for a guy who broke the gambling rule. They’re honoring a guy who might’ve bet against them. Wait another 25 years, and we’ll find that out.
In the meantime, the Redx are honoring a guy who did his best to ensure his banishment from baseball.
Fans are clamoring for Yoenis Cespedes. They want him. They need him. Here’s the problem. What’s the corresponding move?
When the Cubs signed Ben Zobrist, they were prepared. They had a deal worked out for Starlin Castro to go to the Yankees. Having the deal in place helped prevent the market from suppressing Castro’s value because the Cubs would’ve had to trade Castro. If the Mets want to sign Cespedes, they’re going to have to do the same thing.
Right now, the Mets have Michael Conforto in left, Juan Lagares and Alejandro De Aza platooning in center, and Curtis Granderson in right. If you sign Cespedes, something’s gotta give. Let’s start with the obvious. You’re not moving Conforto. Also, with the Mets signing De Aza cannot be traded until June 15th. That leaves Granderson and Lagares. Which one do you move? It’s a matter of selling low on Lagares or selling high on Granderson.
If you trade Lagares, you’re trading an elite defensive player. He was a 5.5 WAR player and a Gold Glover just in 2014. He had a down year in 2015. We don’t know how much of it had to do with his elbow injury, but he fell off the map defensively. He went from an 18.6 UZR to a 3.5. Basically, he went from a Gold Glover to merely above average. If Lagares isn’t elite defensively, he’s not an everyday player.
I still think Lagares has value. He had a terrific postseason hitting .348/.375/.435. He performed well in Winter League action this, even if he showed platoon splits. He’s still just 26 years old. The hope is he rebuilds his value. If he does, and you sell low, you’re going to regret it.
The other choice is Granderson, who may be at the apex of his value. Last year he hit .259/.364/.457. He was a dynamic leadoff hitter. For long stretches of the season, he was the only legitimate hitter in the lineup holding things together. He was a Gold Glove finalist. He was the best position player on the Mets last year. He then followed it up with a great postseason. He hit three World Series homeruns. He’s a great fit for a win-now team like the Mets.
However, he is turning 35 before the start of the next season. He’s a year removed from a .237/.326/.388 season. He just had surgery on a torn ligament in his thumb. There are risks relying upon his production for next year.
The last option would be to keep everyone. That is a monumental task for Terry Collins. You have to keep Lagares and De Aza happy with even more limited at bats. You have to hold off on the temptation of benching Conforto for stretches if he struggles or goes into a prolonged slump. There’s an issue of relying on Wilmer Flores too much. Remember, he hit .263/.295/.408 last year. The Mets still need a 1B/OF option.
Putting aside the issues it would create, Cespedes is a good player who could help the Mets. The fans want him. The issue then becomes who do the fans want to jettison?
There are real and legitimate reasons for the Mets not re-signing Yoenis Cespedes. Advanced stats like UZR and DRS suggest he’s a poor defensive centerfielder. Despite his hot streak with the Mets, he still only has a career .319 OBP. Also, you can knock the Mets finances all you want, but is a 30 year old outfielder worth a long term deal? Those deals typically end badly.
Well with Cespedes still unsigned, and the fans still clamoring for him, the Mets decided to offer some more reasons. As John Harper reported in his New York Daily News article, the Mets had other issues with Cespedes, which included:
- He marches to his own drumbeat;
- He refuses to take batting practice;
- He doesn’t hustle;
- He smokes during games; and
- He will be a headache if he receives a long-term deal.
I’m not going to say any of these reasons are incorrect. I’ve never seen Cespedes take batting practice. We saw him miss player introductions at Citi Field during the World Series. I’ve yet to see him go to first base when he struck out on a ball in the dirt. He was lacksadasical running down a routine flyball leading to the infamous inside-the-park homerun to open the World Series. Better yet, he didn’t even run after the ball once it got by him. So yes, I believe the Mets on all of these fronts.
However, why are you telling this to us now? I never heard of the batting practice issue in August. Apparently, there was no issue with smoking in September. Why are the Mets smearing Cespedes now?
If it’s to change the public opinions of Mets fans on him, it’s misguided. If it’s to distract about how the Mets aren’t spending, it’s not working. If it’s to drive down his market to put him within their range, it’s not happening. So again, what did leaking all this information to the New York Daily News accomplish?
To me, all it accomplished was making the Mets seem small and petty. This guy was a good player for your team for three months. He was a fan favorite. He was a thrill a minute. For all of that, the Mets just spat in his face and kicked him out the back door. They did it even when everyone knew the Mets had zero intention of re-signing him. At the end of the day, there was no need for it.
Cespedes deserved to be treated better.
Editor’s Note: a version of this article also ran on metsmezmerizedonline.com
From what I gather from reading incorrect interpretations of the book, I take many people did not actually read Moneyball. If you haven’t, you should go and read it. If you have, now is the time to re-read it.
The reason to re-read it now is the script for the Mets postseason lies within those pages. I know Sandy Alderson was no longer the A’s GM at the time; it was Billy Beane. However, remember Beane’s top two lieutenants were J.P. Riccardi and Paul DePodesta. Until recently, they were Alderson’s top lieutenants. They were at least in place when the Mets were creating their offseason plans.
One of the many aspects of the book, which the movie seemed to get purposefully wrong, was how the A’s went about replacing Jason Giambi and one-year rental Johnny Damon. In essence, the A’s determined they flat out didn’t have enough money to replace these guys with other high priced players. Instead, the A’s were going to have to replace their production using a different line of thinking. I’m summing up here and being a little over simplistic, but here was the thought process:
- The team needed to identify what was undervalued on the free agent market (OBP);
- They needed the cumulation of their entire roster to replace Giambi and Damon since they couldn’t just sign two big name free agents to do it; and
- They needed to do it as cheaply as possible.
So what did they do? Well we know the Scott Hatteberg story with him being moved to first due to his traditionally high OBP (more on that later). In the movie and most other places, the story behind the David Justice acquisition is plain wrong. The A’s obtained him from the Mets, not the Yankees, in exchange for a LOOGY by the name of Mark Guthrie and a mistake waiting to happen by the name of Tyler Yates. It was the Mets, not the Yankees, who kicked in salary. It was only $1.2 million.
Now for the moves that haven’t received much fanfare. The A’s handed the secondbase job to a young Mark Ellis, who was capable of higher production than last year’s second baseman Frank Menechino. Menechino was moved to the bench to create a deeper roster. The A’s traded for Carlos Pena, who was a promising young player. Pena was supposed to be the first baseman with Hatteberg at DH and Justice in LF. That’s the way it was up until the trade deadline. They also traded for Billy Koch to sure up the closer’s role for the departed Jason Isringhausen.
By design, the A’s replaced Giambi and Damon not only with Pena and Justice, but by also improving their DH spot (Olmedo Saenz and Jeremy Giambi) and secondbase. In essence, the A’s added three new starters putting their old starters on the bench. The A’s left some payroll flexibility and had assets for the trade deadline.
The A’s used Pena in a three way trade to acquire Ted Lilly to sure up the rotation behind their three young big pitchers. They then used a prospect to acquire Ray Durham to DH with some needed cash. Hatteberg moved to be the full time first baseman. And yes, like in the movie, the A’s also added Ricardo Rincon to be the LOOGY to sure up the bullpen.
Did it work? If you look at the record, it absolutely did. They went from a 102 win team to a 103 win team. However, the reason wasn’t Hatteberg or Rincon. No, the part we forget is Barry Zito won the Cy Young, and Miguel Tejada win the MVP. They were powered by an insane 20 game winning streak. Lost in that streak was the A’s played only one team over .500 and played two teams that lost over 100 games that year.
The 2002 A’s got top notch performances from their top guys, and they made sure to beat the teams they were supposed to beat. Make no mistake. The 2002 A’s were worse. They scored 84 less runs and allowed nine more runs. However, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter. They won one more game.
The Mets are in a similar position as the A’s were. Make no mistake about it, the Mets have limited funds. With those funds, they needed to go out and replace the production of Daniel Murphy and a half a season of Yoenis Cespedes. Last year, Murphy hit .281/.322/.449 with 14 homers and 73 RBI. Cespedes hit .287/.337/.604 with 17 homers and 44 RBI in his time with the Mets.
We already know how the Mets replaced that production. They traded for Neil Walker, who hit .269/.328/.427 with 16 homers and 71 RBI. He’s a career .272/.338/.431 hitter. The Mets then decided to go with a platoon in center. There is in-house option Juan Lagares to hit against lefties. He hit .273/.333/.438 against lefties last year and .279/.325/.427 for his career. Platooning with him is Alejandro De Aza, who hit .278/.351/.448 against righties last year and .274/.338/.418 for his career. Now, this isn’t enough to replace the production of both of Murphy and Cespedes.
That’s where Asdrubal Cabrera comes in. Last year, Wilmer Flores played the bulk of time at shortstop hitting .263/.295/.408. Ruben Tejada played a lot there hitting .261/.338/.350. The Mets hoped by signing Cabrera they have significantly upgraded the position to cover the loss of Murphy and Cespedes. Cabrera hit .265/.315/.430 last year with the Rays. Speaking of replacing Cespedes’ second half production Cabrera hit .328/.372/.544 in the second half last year. Tangentially, the bench is theoretically better by having Flores and Tejada there.
Following the script they invented in Oakland, the Mets have already done what they believe they needed to do to replace the production they have lost. Right now, the Mets projected payroll is ~$106 million or about $4 million less than the 2015 payroll. Accordingly, the Mets are maintaining payroll flexibility like the A’s did so they can make trades at the deadline.
And, by the way, the Mets are powered by their three big young starters. How will it work out in 2016? We don’t know yet. However, if history is any lesson, the 2016 Mets will be worse than the 2015 version. If they want to have a better record, the 2016 Mets will need to take advantage of their games against bad teams like the Phillies and Braves. One of the young pitchers will have to step up even more. We’ll see which everyday player can step up to have the Tejada-like season.
At some point or another, we have all heard of the Five Stages of Grief, which are:
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
Not to demean anyone’s grief, but this truly feels like what the Mets fans are currently going through with Yoenis Cespedes.
When the Mets first acquired Cespedes, there wasn’t any question whether the Mets could re-sign him. Cespedes had a quirky contract that forced the team he was on to negotiate a deal within five days. If the deal was not completed, he could not be re-signed by that team for basically another year or so. However, there were some events that changed that.
The first was Cespedes got hot. Not just hot; no, he was insanely hot. From August 12th – September 14th, he hit .323/.379/.805 with 17 homers and 37 RBI. He then waived the obstructive clause in his contract thereby allowing the Mets to sign him at any point in the offseason.
As the offseason began, the Mets fans entered the denial stage. Despite all evidence pointing to the contrary, Mets fans believed that Cespedes would return. The reports all said he would t return. Mets fans focused on the team having extra money from the postseason run, money freed up from Michael Cuddyer‘s retirement, and Cespedes’ own overtures that he wanted to come back to the Mets.
Then the Mets signed Alejandro De Aza to be the left-hand hitting platoon option for Juan Lagares in centerfield. At this point, the idea of Cespedes not returning to the Mets became more real, and the Mets fans responded angrily. They besieged every Mets tweet with a “Re-sign Cespedes” or something of that nature. They began to point out how the Mets have all that extra revenue from an extended postseason run, and they’re still not spending it.
With the Tigers signing Justin Upton, the Mets fans have entered the bargaining phase. With one less suitor for Cespedes, the Mets fans now believe Cespedes may take a shorter term deal from the Mets. Sure, they want the Mets to give him a long term deal, but they’re willing to accept that the Mets can re-sign him for a one to three year deal. The Mets can make it work with lots of opt outs.
This leaves Mets fans with two more stages: Depression and Acceptance. Depression will surely come as another team swoops in and signs Cespedes. They’ll be depressed thinking about Lagares and De Aza manning center while Cespedes is off bringing his unique skill set somewhere else. Finally, probably around Opening Day, Mets fans will see their team in action and accept the roster for what it is.
So while this offseason is almost over, Mets fans are really only halfway through the Five Stages of Cespedes. If only it were as fun as celebrating the holiday of Cespedes.