Election News: Céspedes elects not to play rest of 2020

"Yoenis Cespedes has not reported to the ballpark today. He did not reach out to management for an explanation and any attempts to reach Cespedes have been unsuccessful" pic.twitter.com/RHL4tXnUkE

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 2, 2020

Yeah.  No surprise.  Multiple people on Twitter apparently are new since they did not realize this sort of behavior is not atypical.  Recall his cut-rate salary this season (even less with a shortened season; given his ridiculously overpaid previous four years, this balanced things out somewhat) was a result of him breaking the rules somehow.  We don't know exactly, but he wouldn't have taken the big pay-cut out of the goodness of his heart. The guy was a flashy player for years, but that brought with it some arrogance and recklessness. Not showing up was not surprising in the least.

(His home run was the sole run in one of the Mets three wins so far, but overall, he has not been doing well early.  This as a DH.  He still, even coming back in the summer, was not 100%, including running the first base.  His injury history was one reason the Mets were basically competing against themselves back in 2016 though the rest probably factored in.) 

Being the Mets, the whole thing was reported in a confused matter.  In the middle of yet another loss (the rookie fill-in starter did well a second time, Diaz had a good inning after a bad first batter, but the Mets kept on leaving people on base), first we get he isn't anywhere to be found. Then, we get that there is no reason to think he was in danger.  This threw some on Twitter, seen as unjust to him.  He might be in trouble!  Like we know all that is going on.  Like he might have been kidnapped. That's the first assumption.  Come on.

Eventually, we get this: "Yoenis Céspedes has decided not to play out the rest of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns, Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen announced on Sunday afternoon."  This apparently came as a surprise to the team overall.  Who knows. I personally generally get the idea upper management bs-es on a regular basis.  Anyway, have seen this guy as an albatross for years now.  While he was hurt, I wished they would let him go for some bag of balls. As is, it looks like they managed to get a sizable amount of money back this season. 

Without Céspedes in the mix, the Mets will give more DH reps to Dominic Smith, J.D. Davis, Robinson Canó and perhaps Pete Alonso, with Smith potentially playing first base on those days. No Mets hitter stands to benefit more than Smith, who has started just four of the Mets’ first 10 games despite swinging one of their hottest bats in Summer Camp.

Dominic Smith surely deserves it.  If Cespedes, as a DH, actually had something, he could have been useful.  And, cheap (about 4M!).  But, I'm glad to see him go. It's baseball, so you take all that jazz as part of the game. They are playing a kid sport.  A major problem I had though was that I think the team ridiculously overpaid him for limited moments of success.  Yes, he was great in the 2015 run.  But, people like Daniel Murphy also were very important.  They let him go, even though a hurt David Wright meant a hole that Murphy for not too much could have filled. Murphy rubbed some the wrong way, but he was there for years.

And, letting him go could be justified.  Cespedes less so -- it was one of many misguided "BIG" contracts that turned out badly.  He wasn't even there at key moments such as when they went for a playoff spot in 2016.  They could have used that money to get a pretty good bad PLUS someone else.  Or, heck, maybe just pocket the money. The net result was disappointment, even if he gave you a few moments to cheer. Like that home run that gave DeGrom a win this season.  His 2020 moment.

So how's baseball?  Okay.  Seems a bit strange with fake fans and all the rest.  The concern is the new situation still did not prevent a major outbreak, the Phils and Marlins only playing a few games.  Guess the logic here is that we can take a few chances, deal with some sickness [statistically, someone very well might die or at least have a serious lingering case or infect third parties]  in return for baseball.  Part of a wider whole in this society really, resulting in over 140K deaths. And, as was referenced in a part article, the rules are not consistently applied to them. That too is not atypical.

The Mets had a rough start that could be addressed, especially with a lot of scrubs coming (Orioles alone; they also play the Marlins and one figueres the Phils will struggle some too), but there are around fifty games left.  I think 2020 should be treated as a quasi-sesaon.  Do we really want to give a Cy Young to someone in the conditions?  It would be like giving one on June 1st or something.  Don't like the DH.  The rushed extra inning rule was okay.  Still rather it not go into place right away in the normal season.  I actually think the seven inning double header is okay.

The best constant, other than Mets drama, is Gary/Keith/Ron. Those guys continue to care, even in an exposition game.  Bad baseball plays bother them.  Plus, they have a light touch, especially Keith.  Gary is in one booth, Keith and Ron in another.  They also don't go on away games.  There should play with that somehow -- they are basically watching just like us.  Why not just do a game at home once?  We can see Gary's dogs and Keith's cat.  And, again, boring white sideline reporters bore me. Why can't they have a woman sideline reporter?  He seems a nice enough guy -- Gary Apple blocked me after I made one snarky comment and he comes off as a bit of a jerk -- and knows his job.  But, so boring!