Things are already really bad for the New York Mets. Setting aside the financial issues that ownership has wrought over the last decade, it is a club that has seemingly always struggled with injuries, has gotten off to a poor start this year, invested significantly under the direction of a new front office in an attempt to be competitive this year, has a manager on an extremely hot seat, and now, it won’t be getting back one of its best bats.
Cespedes suffered a "violent fall" and twisted his right ankle in a hole, per GM Brodie Van Wagenen. He was not riding a horse, the GM said, but it was a non-baseball related activity. Van Wagenen did not elaborate further, and did not offer a timeline for Cespedes' recovery.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) May 20, 2019
Cespedes, 33, was already recovering from surgery on BOTH of his heals, and was expected to be back in the second half. And now, he falls – somehow, but not off a horse? – and breaks his right ankle. Oof. Without a breakthrough elsewhere on the roster, the Mets are going to have to make some very big decisions about the near-term future of the team in short order.
Cespedes is such an important productive bat when he’s healthy, but in his current four-year, $110 million deal, which runs through next season, he’s contributed just 119 games.
Not only does this all matter for the potential market impact, but it also matters because if the Mets continue to stink this year, the path to a Wild Card in the NL East will get a whole lot easier than folks were thinking a couple months ago.