Mets’ Cespedes says he’ll be ready to start season
Slugger said he’s much more confident that he’ll be good to go than he was in spring
Yoenis Cespedes is sure he’ll be ready to start the pandemic-delayed season with the New York Mets.
Out of the lineup for almost two years, the 34-year-old slugger said Saturday he finally is close to fully recovered from a string of injuries to his feet and legs.
“I don’t have an exact percentage on how I feel, but I feel way better than I did back in March,” Cespedes said through a translator on a video conference call.
When the coronavirus outbreak halted spring training March 12 and pushed back opening day about four months, that gave Cespedes more time to rehab and heal up.
He said he woke at 5 a.m. for workouts seven days a week during the hiatus, which helped him a lot.
“I think possibly in the beginning in March I felt like I probably wouldn’t have been ready for the season, I wouldn’t have been ready in time. But I know for certain now that I will be ready and I’m very excited for the season to start in two weeks,” he said.
Themetsopenathomejuly24 against Atlanta. And with the designated hitter available in the National League this year, Cespedes is a prime candidate for that role during a shortened schedule of 60 games.
The two-time All-star outfielder missed last season and most of 2018. He had surgery on both heels and then broke his right ankle in a nasty fall at his Florida ranch in a reported run-in with a wild boar.
“Honestly, the hardest part is getting to the point where my legs are right now, the way they feel. They can still feel better. But the way they feel right now, I didn’t think I could get to this point,” he said.
“I think what changed was that I started to feel more motivation, that I could return back to the form that I used to be at.”
Cespedes said at spring training in February he expected to come back this year, and he’s looked healthy and dangerous in the batter’s box since summer camp opened July 3 at Citi
Field.
He cracked a two-run homer off
Seth Lugo during an intrasquad game Thursday. But rather than trot around the bases after the ball cleared the fence, Cespedes simply walked back to the dugout.
It seems his only remaining hurdle is showing he can sprint full speed without issue.
“I’ve been able to start running close to as normal as possible, and I think that’s been the biggest stride,” Cespedes said.
“Just the way that my body feels now, it’s been great.”
Late last month, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said the team was optimistic Cespedes would be ready for the season. Van Wagenen also noted Cespedes is a five-tool athlete and won’t necessarily be limited to DH duty if healthy.
The left fielder is entering the final season of a four-year contract.
“The way that my body’s feeling right now and the way that I’ve been able to run, I feel so much better and I feel like I’ll be able to play the outfield if that comes up,” he said.
Cespedes hasn’t played since
July 20, 2018 — his only major league game after May 13 that year.
“To be honest, I’m not out here to prove anything to anyone. I’m out here to prove something to myself — that after three surgeries that I can come back and play the way that I know that I can,” he said.
Rangers: texas outfielder Joey Gallo says he doesn’t know if he actually had the coronavirus despite two positive tests, since he has never had any symptoms and also had multiple negative tests. “i wish i had an answer,” he said Saturday, a day after he was able to join the team. “i don’t know. i really don’t know.” Gallo said he planned to have a more extensive antibody test to be sure after a finger-prick test didn’t indicate that he had Covid-19 at any point. the 26-year-old All-star slugger missed the first week of the rangers’ summer camp and isolated from teammates for two weeks after two positive tests that sandwiched a negative result during intake testing. He had two negative tests on his own outside of the MLB testing program, but wasn’t cleared to join the team until consecutive negative tests under the protocol. “it was a strange process to go through. there wasn’t much anybody could have done because the test came up positive,” Gallo said. “it was weird, it was hard to get real answers on if i really had it or not . ... As of right now i am coming up negative and that’s how i am hoping to stay the rest of the season.” Gallo’s positive results were by the saliva test, though he was negative on a swab test. He said he is “now on edge” when going through the testing and gets nervous every time he has to do a saliva test. After 40-homer seasons in 2017 and 2018, Gallo had 22 home runs in 70 games last season when he was an All-star for the first time before season-ending wrist surgery. He homered in the All-star Game on the first pitch in his only at-bat. While Gallo feels a “little behind” baseball-wise, he said he felt good overall. the right fielder joined a group of teammates working out at the rangers’ new stadium for several weeks before the positive tests that forced him to stay home. He said it was tough mentally being away from his teammates. While isolating in his high-rise apartment, Gallo again set up a big screen in front of the window overlooking downtown dallas and hit off a tee like he had when he returned home after MLB halted spring training in mid-march. “i had to set it back up. And i’ve got a little mini Wiffle ball machine that we use that shoots Wiffle balls at us, and i was hitting off that just to help make a hand-eye coordination,” Gallo said. “And i was training on my balcony. i have a bunch of different bands, so i’d wrap it around my railing on my balcony, and i was doing as much as i possibly could to make sure when i got back, i was good to go,” he said.
Obituary: mike ryan, the backup catcher on the Boston red Sox’s 1967 “impossible dream” team during a 35-year career in professional baseball, has died. He was 78. the red Sox said ryan died in his sleep tuesday in Wolfeboro, n.h. A native of Haverhill, ryan appeared in 636 games with the red Sox, Phillies and Pirates from 1964-74. He was Boston’s backup catcher for the AL championship team in ’67, going hitless in his only two World Series at-bats when the red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. in his career, he had a .991 fielding percentage and threw out 43.6 percent of runners attempting to steal a base.