Yoenis Cespedes
Well, no one is whining over losing Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil. David Stearns has drastically and dramatically remade the New York Mets into possibly the best team in baseball.
They recently made huge additions with Bo Bichette and Louis Robert Jr. (two moves requiring overdue posts). Stearns then took a big swing trading for Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers.
People will say Peralta was needed because the Mets rotation was bad. They were very wrong. That said, Peralta is a very good pitcher, and when you can add a very good pitcher, you do it.
Peralta makes the Mets rotation better in so many ways.
He was 24th in the majors in innings pitched, and he’s made 30+ starts in three consecutive years. He was 17th in the majors in FIP and 15th in WAR. He was seventh in ERA and eighth in ERA+.
While you may uncomfortable calling him an ace, he’s a number one starter. It’s a fact. When there are 30 MLB teams are you’re top 25 and better in most categories, you’re a number one.
When a team adds a number one starter, it dramatically improves their outlook. Go back to 2000. Mike Hampton wasn’t an ace, but he was a true number one, and he was a big piece that helped the Mets win the pennant.
Peralta may not even be the Mets best starter. That is probably Nolan McLean. It’s hard to find a better 1-2 in baseball than Peralta-McLean . . . or McLean-Peralta.
Speaking of McLean, this makes him and the whole rotation better. At the moment, the Mets have six starters. This gives McLean an extra day of rest to help him get through his first full MLB season.
Kodai Senga has been better with an extra day of rest, and now, he gets it. David Peterson and Clay Holmes wore down from the increased workload, and now, they also get an extra day. Sean Manaea also gets a needed extra day.
They just didn’t get better by adding Peralta. They got better because the six man rotation makes the entire rotation better. They’re getting the best out of all their starters, which is very bad news for the National League.
Senga and Peterson have been All-Stars. Manaea was a top of the rotation pitcher for a team that went to the NLCS. McLean’s ceiling is as high as we’ve ever seen. They’re now all positioned to be at their best making them arguably the best rotation in baseball.
Keep in mind, Peralta was not the only pitcher the Mets obtained. They also received Myers, a pitcher who is not even arbitration eligible until after the 2027 season.
Myers has been a dominant reliever in his brief Major League career. If you go back to that 2024 Game 3, he absolutely dominated the Mets and appeared to be the game winning pitcher until Alonso did what he did.
Myers may still yet be a starter. He could be a future closer. He’s the Mets 2026 version of Seth Lugo. That’s a dangerous pitcher to have on your staff, and Myers is probably better.
Now, the Mets paid an understandably steep price for Peralta and Myers. In fact, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel explains the Mets trading Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat moved them from the top farm system to sixth best. Ironically, the Brewers moved from sixth to first.
There will be some who try to nitpick the prospects. We can point to Sproat’s struggles at Triple-A and his four Major League starts. We shouldn’t be doing that.
Sproat has a bright future ahead of him. After all, he made his MLB debut a year after being drafted. He could’ve been a big piece for the Mets in 2026.
Williams is a top prospect. He has a real future at second, short, or CF. He’s got speed and power in his bat. Losing him hurts, and it takes away insurance for the 35 year old Marcus Semien and injury prone players like Bichette and Robert.
The Mets can soon come to regret this trade, especially with Peralta being a year away from free agency. That makes this a real gamble and a worthwhile one at that.
Peralta improves the Mets rotation and improves the entire pitching staff. Myers makes the Mets deeper. If Myers is in the bullpen, this could be the best staff in the entire Major Leagues.
The Mets officially went all-in. They’ve built a team better than the 2025 Mets, and it could be the best this century. Time will tell. Whatever happens, it’ll be because the Mets made the very bold move to add Peralta to make the Mets the one team who can dethrone the Dodgers.
Perhaps New York Mets fans should’ve expected it, but we were all shocked and disappointed Edwin Díaz signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The fans immediately directed their ire towards David Stearns, and correctly so.
Spin the story any which way you want. In all iterations, Stearns completely and utterly failed.
There were reports the Mets were “shocked” Díaz left without giving them a chance to match. They expected him to return. Put another way, Stearns completely misread the situation.
There were reports Díaz was upset the Mets fired Jeremy Hefner. Remember, Hefner fixed Díaz’s stride and helped him become the best closer in baseball.
Hefner was fired partially as an overreaction to the Mets pitching staff collapsing. Remember, that was because of the pitchers Stearns obtained and not anything Hefner did.
As an example, Stearns let Luis Severino walk (when he wanted to return) to sign Frankie Montas. Somehow, Hefner was to blame for Stearns signing broken starters and relievers.
There’s Stearns no fifth year rule. Remember, Diaz said he’d return to the Mets if he got the same deal he got last time. If the Mets gave him that offer, he’s back for a lower AAV they were offering him.
Instead they opted to gamble they could outbid everyone. They weren’t even given the chance with them now looking at Robert Suarez amongst others.
By the way, if Suarez gets a two year deal, he wlll be signed to his age 36 season. If the Mets wrapped up Díaz by giving him five years, he’s would’ve been signed through his age 36 season. But hey, it’s length of deal and not age.
The Mets said their three year $66 million deal had “wiggle room.” That’s just about the dumbest way to negotiate. Hey, we’re offering this, but we have more money for you but only after someone else engages you in contract talks.
Please, come back to us after someone offers you more, so you can hear our best offer. Why let Díaz actively seek out better offers to get a better one out of you? You run the risk of letting him: (1) get an offer you won’t match; (2) be blown away by another team; or (3) never give you a chance to match or counter.
The Mets let Díaz shop their offer. The Dodgers bettered it, and they were impressive enough (or Díaz was upset enough) Díaz opted just to leave.
Díaz was also apparently upset the Mets signed Devin Williams without talking to him. Certainly, it must’ve been a shock to see the Mets sign another closer when they’re telling you they want you back.
Now, the Mets tried to make it clear to everyone they wanted Williams as a bridge to Díaz. That’s good and all, but why not just tell Díaz?
It goes to a growing criticism of Stearns. He’s a poor communicator with the players. That’s a very bad quality for someone entasked with building relationships to entice people to either stay or come to your team.
There are some accusing Díaz of ring chasing. Guess what? The Mets haven’t exactly put together a roster to convince Díaz they can compete with the Dodgers now. Again, that’s on Stearns.
The Mets expecting and hoping for some loyalty from Díaz is also a little thick. Stearns forced Brandon Nimmo out the door. Remember, Nimmo was a homegrown Met who loved being a Met and never wanted to waive or be asked to waive his no-trade clause.
Nimmo was partially persuaded to accept the trade to the Texas Rangers by Jacob deGrom. Stearns had partially opted to not retain the homegrown Met because he wanted more years. Again, years are standing in the way of signing impactful free agents.
At the end of the day, the Mets offer was to come back to a team who fired his pitching coach. They asked him to return to a team showing no loyalty to anyone. There’s rumors of a toxic clubhouse.
The Mets didn’t want to give him what he wanted. They don’t have the best roster amongst the teams who were vying for his services. They didn’t have the best offer, nor did they make their best offer.
Overall, the Mets not only misjudge the situation, but they also misjudged their relationship with Díaz. That doesn’t happen to a competent GM who is supposed to have good working relationships with his players and their agents.
Stearns botched the Díaz situation from every single angle. That led to Díaz signing with the Dodgers, and the Mets being left in shock and an already bad bullpen losing their only reliable arm.
Stearns has work to do here not only in terms of fixing this Mets roster, but also in ensuring something like this never happens again.
We knew the New York Mets trading David Robertson was coming. After all, Robertson was on a one year deal, and with the Mets completely out of it, he needed to be moved at the trade deadline. With closers traditionally netting good returns, he was a must move.
The shock was that Robertson was moved to the Miami Marlins. The Marlins are surprisingly still in the heat of the race to the postseason. They’re also never a team you think would be adding money at the deadline. All that said, there they were making a huge move at the trade deadline.
For the Mets, the return was a bit of a shock. Perhaps, that is a big reason why much of the reaction has been misplaced.
First thing we need to ignore is the prospect rankings. Those rankings were made before the season, and they do not account for the progress prospects have made, and none of them account for the 2023 draft.
Another important note here is no top 10 or 20 prospect in an organization is the same. A top 10 prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers system is a whole lot different than being a top 10 prospect in the San Diego Padres system. The Dodgers are loaded, and the Padres aren’t.
An example there is when the Mets traded Michael Fulmer to the Detroit Tigers in 2015 for Yoenis Cespedes. At the time of the trade, the talk was the Mets traded a prospect who was rated outside their top 15 prospects.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. As we discovered soon thereafter, Fulmer was vaulting up lists and would be a top 100 prospect, and he would actually become the Tigers fifth best prospect. The following season he would be the American League Rookie of the Year. This is all a long winded way of saying ignore prospect rankings and generally see what the discussion is on the prospects.
With Marco Vargas and Ronald Hernandez, the Mets got very high ceiling players. Both make a great deal of contact, don’t strike out, have great plate disciple, and they have very real power potential. On one or both, we may one day be talking about how the Mets absolutely stole these two prospects from the Marlins.
These are prospects who typically are thrown into a deal to try to pry a major leaguer away from a team. An example here was the Mets jumping into the Joe Musgrove trade by sending Endy Rodriguez to the Pittsburgh Pirates so they could get Joey Lucchesi from the San Diego Padres. We have also seen the Mets send Felix Valerio to the Milwaukee Brewers to help grab Keon Broxton.
Put another way, the Mets have been throwing prospects like Vargas and Hernandez away for years for bit players. Now, they’re using a big trade chip to get prospects of this caliber (perhaps even better than that).
Another thing that immediately stood out was this really didn’t address the Mets organizational needs. The team needs pitchers and outfielders at the upper levels of the minors who can contribute in the next year or two at the major league level. The Marlins did not have the outfielders that fit that bill, but they did have the pitching.
Certainly, there were other teams out there who had what the Mets needed. That said, we don’t know if those teams were actively pursuing Robertson, and if those types of prospects were even put on the table.
There are some who like the return for the Mets, and there are many who don’t. It does seem a little underwhelming, but ultimately, the trade is going to be adjudged by the Mets player development’s ability to make Vargas the type of prospect the Mets desperately need him to be.
All that said, this was the type of trade a team makes when they are tearing it down for a rebuild. With Justin Verlander reportedly being shopped at the deadline, perhaps that’s what the Mets are doing. Maybe not.
With the Mets failing the way they have this season, there is much uncertainty surrounding the future of the team. This does not seem to be a team set for a complete rebuild, which makes this type of trade stand out. In the end, the Mets have a lot of work to do before the trade deadline and even more this offseason. Whatever the case, their system is better for having Vargas and Hernandez in it.
Back in 2015, it seemed like the New York Mets were about to become perennial contenders. It seemed like Matt Harvey was going to be the guy who got the ball in big postseason games, and it was Mike Piazza‘s duty to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
So much has happened since then.
Harvey had TOS as well as his own personal demons. he would be designated for assignment and traded to the Cincinnati Reds. At the moment, after his suspension stemming from the Tyler Skaggs death and subsequent investigation, he seems like he will soon be out of baseball.
With that, we thought we saw the end of Harvey and Piazza being united on the same team and on the same field. That was until the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Piazza represented Italy in the first WBC, and he has worked his way up to become their manager. Due to the relative paucity of options for his team, he found himself turning to Harvey to not only join the team, but also be their ace.
Matt Harvey's return to the mound went about as well as anyone could have hoped, as the 33-year-old threw three scoreless innings this morning for Team Italy vs. Cuba in the WBC.
That included a groundout of former teammate Yoenis Céspedes in their only meeting. pic.twitter.com/8QOnVcom2i
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) March 9, 2023
Harvey pitched three scoreless innings, and he had a moment with former Mets teammate Yoenis Céspedes. They gave each other a nod, and Harvey would get Céspedes to ground out.
The game went extra innings with Italy pulling out the surprising win. It would also prove to effectively eliminate Cuba from the World Baseball Classic. This isn’t Italy’s biggest or more surprising win in the WBC, but it was an important first step to make noise in this year’s classic.
Credit for this win deserves to go to Piazza for leading Italy the way he did. Credit should also go to Harvey who stepped up and pitching three scoreless.
Seeing Harvey and Piazza out there for big games and coming away with a victory was part of the dream in 2015. We hoped it would continue for the next decade, but it didn’t.
Now, we have this one final glimpse. As Mets fans, we should relish this run for as long as it lasts because in reality, the next time we see these two together will be at an Old Timer’s Day at Citi Field.
One of the great things we have seen happen with Major League Baseball in recent years is the correct spelling of players’ names on the back of their jerseys. For example, Yoenis Céspedes jersey in 2015 had “CESPEDES” on the back, but in 2016, that was changed to the correct spelling of “CÉSPEDES.”
This matters because that is how you actually spell his name. The accent mark directly impacts how the names is pronounced. More than that, by not having the accent mark, tilde, or other marking, you are misspelling a player’s name. That is offensive and wrong.
It took way too long, but Major League Baseball finally got it right. Give credit where it is due. For some reason, Fanantics refuses to do the same despite being the entity which sells approved team and player jerseys and other merchandise.
If you go to Fanatics, there are player jerseys available, but your favorite player may not be one of the ones available. Fortunately, Fanantics has a drop down menu for every player on the roster. The problem is not all of the players are available or are spelled correctly.
Take Francisco Álvarez as an example. There is a very clear accent mark on the “A” making it an “Á.” With Álvarez being an uber prospect on the verge of making it to the majors, there are fans who will want his jersey. There’s a significant problem.
When you go to the Fanatics personalized Mets jersey selection, they do not have Álvarez as an option. Instead, it is the incorrectly spelled Alvarez.
At least, you can choose Álvarez as Alvarez for a personalization option. However, you cannot opt for reigning National League batting champion Jeff McNeil.
McNeil is a name of Irish origin; one of the few on the 2023 Mets. If you want a St. Patrick’s Day Mets shirt for McNeil, you can’t. That is because Fanatics deems the little c because of the “special spelling of the name.”
That’s right a lower case c is not worth Fanatics making a screen printing. They’d rather have shirts for the reigning NL batting champ and two time All-Star completely unavailable. If you want to be clever and have an apostrophe in front of another Mets player, forget it. They don’t offer apostrophes either. If you wanted an O’Díaz, you might as well just forget it.
You can probably guess like McNeil, Díaz is unavailable as well. After all, who would want the jersey of the very popular closer?
You see, rather than offer options for popular players or spell names properly, Fanatics decides they shouldn’t bother. They won’t because they don’t care and know you can’t go elsewhere. This is unacceptable, and it’s shocking MLB or the MLBPA has never sought to intervene and halt these offensive and discriminatory practices.
When the New York Mets played the San Diego Padres in the Wild Card Series, it was the first time the Mets were in the postseason since they were in the postseason in 2016. In fact, that marked just the second time in team history the Mets went to the postseason in consecutive seasons.
While just seven years ago, none of the players from those 2015-2016 Mets teams are around anymore. Actually, that’s not entirely true with Jerry Blevins working on the SNY postgame and occasionally filling in for Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez.
Blevins isn’t the only player who is retired. Look back at their starting lineup in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series. Almost all of those players are retired:
- Curtis Granderson – retired
- David Wright – retired
- Daniel Murphy – retired
- Yoenis Cespedes – attempting a comeback after retiring
- Lucas Duda – retired
- Travis d’Arnaud – Atlanta Braves
- Michael Conforto – San Francisco Giants
- Wilmer Flores – San Francisco Giants
- Kelly Johnson – retired
That is five retired and one more effectively retired. Notably, with Johnson, we saw Michael Cuddyer and Kirk Nieuwenhuis pinch hit in that DH spot, and both are now retired. If anything, it would seem the San Francisco Giants is the official team of the 2015 Mets.
As we see with Conforto and Flores, there are still some of those Mets players still in the majors, Matt Harvey notwithstanding. However, when Jacob deGrom signing with the Texas Rangers, there are currently no players from that team still with the Mets organization.
When Seth Lugo signed with the San Diego Padres, that left the Mets with absolutely no pitchers from that two year run. When Conforto signed with the Giants, that meant Brandon Nimmo was the only Mets player from that two year stretch to remain with the Mets, and he only played in 32 games.
When deGrom signed with the Rangers, we obviously lamented the second greatest Met ever leaving the organization. However, it was Conforto and Lugo leaving which officially turned the page on those teams with so much promise which ultimately fell apart due to the Wilpons malfeasance and cheapness.
In a sense, we should welcome this chapter forever being closed. Now, it is all about Steve Cohen and how he runs the Mets. So far this offseason, that means Nimmo is a Met for life in addition to adding Justin Verlander, Koudai Senga, Jose Quintana, David Robertson, Omar Narvaez and hopefully, Carlos Correa. Oh, and by the way, the Mets brought back Edwin Diaz and Adam Ottavino.
So yes, it is sad to see a part of Mets history gone, but we will have those memories. More than that, we have an exciting new era and owner. Now, it is time to just wait for Correa to sign, and the Mets to win a World Series.
Back in 2015, the New York Mets made the mistake of trading Michael Fulmer to acquire Yoenis Cespedes. No, it was not a mistake to obtain Cespedes, but rather, Fulmer was far too high a price to pay. As it would turn out, the Mets needed starting pitching the ensuing two seasons where Fulmer was winning Rookie of the Year and being named an All-Star.
Well, from there, Fulmer had some injury prone years and moved to the bullpen. For his part, Cespedes needed double heel surgery, and then, he would have an incident falling off his horse or something with a feral hog during his rehab. The details are still murky.
Regardless, the Detroit Tigers received a 12.2 WAR out of Fulmer and a prospect at the trade deadline. The Mets received an epic run from Cespedes amounting to a 2.1 WAR and not postseason production at the plate past Game 3 of the NLDS. In essence, the Mets made a win-now trade and didn’t win.
Fast-forward to 2023, and Fulmer is a free agent while Cespedes is trying to get back into the majors. The Mets are also looking to build a bullpen which can get them their first World Series since 1986. It already looks formidable with the following relievers in place:
There are other pitchers in the mix, but these are the relievers who are guaranteed. With five starters, that leaves up to four more relievers who can be added. The presumption is at least two of Joey Lucchesi, Tylor Megill, and David Peterson will start the season in Triple-A to provide organizational starting pitching depth.
That probably leaves pitchers like Jeff Brigham and John Curtiss on more of a solid footing to make the Opening Day bullpen than they probably should. Even with those names likely to make the bullpen, the Mets are still at least one arm short.
Fulmer, 29, would be an excellent fit. As a reliever, he has a 128 ERA+. As per Baseball Savant, he does an exceptional job limiting hard contact and barrels. We’ve also seen Jeremy Hefner work well with pitchers how have a similar repertoire. All told, he probably remains the best arm remaining on the market.
While we are very confident in this Mets roster, they probably remain an arm short in the bullpen. Fulmer would go a long way to resolving that issue and make this Mets team even better. All this time later, the Mets now need to sign Fulmer instead of trading him to try to help put this Mets team over the top.
Things with Yoenis Cespedes did not end well with the New York Mets. After signing his second extension, he had the double heel surgery against Mets wishes, which was something of a Jeff Wilpon specialty with him trying the same with Carlos Beltran‘s career saving knee surgery.
During his rehab, he had the incident with the wild boar. His return was kaput as he now had to contend with a broken ankle. He would return in 2020 for eight games actually hitting two homers before leaving the team.
He opted out like many others did during COVID. While Cespedes told his teammates and the organization, an account backed up by players like Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto, Brodie Van Wagenen and the Mets lied to the public saying they had no idea. After that, there was a significant amount of backlash against the player.
What is interesting is Cespedes was supposed to be one of the players who was to return for Old Timers’ Day. However, he didn’t. This was not a snub, but it had more to do with Cespedes looking to make a return to the Major Leagues. So far, Cespedes is off to a great start in the Winter Leagues:
Yoenis Céspedes had a monster night in the Dominican Winter League:
4-for-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI
— Michael Mayer (@michaelmayer22) October 20, 2022
Does this mean Cespedes can return and be an impact player in the majors? No, we absolutely cannot ascertain anything from one game against lesser competition. Still, with Cespedes, we see he can still have some of that magic in his bat.
This is the type of player for whom a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training exists. In terms of Cespedes, he actually could fill a need for the Mets.
At the trade deadline last year, the team acquired Daniel Vogelbach. That necessitates a right-handed platoon partner. That was supposed to be Darin Ruf, and that did not end well with his 20 OPS+. With Ruf under contract next year, there needs to be competition for him next year.
Internal solutions could be Francisco Álvarez or Mark Vientos. However, they are prospects, and the Mets do not want to have them be a short-sided platoon partner getting very limited plate appearances. That’s not good for them or the organization.
This is where Cespedes could help. He could be competition for Ruf. He is that rare player who raises his game on the New York stage. If there is anything left, the Mets could use it. There is still plenty of time in the Winter Leagues to look at Cespedes more, but the Mets should be tracking him intently while looking to bring him back to the organization.