Mets are hoping to have Ces back in 1 week
AFTER hoping to get back the $110 million slugger this week, the Mets are cautiously optimistic that Yoenis Cespedes could be back one week from today. The outfielder suffered a sore right quad Friday night in his first rehab game after spending a month on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring and was shut down until at least today. The Mets are hopeful it was a small setback and he could be back on track for next week.
“We have those two days off out of four when we go to Texas (next week), where we use a (designated hitter),” Mets GM Sandy Alderson said before Monday’s 4-2 victory over the Brewers at Citi Field. “So kind of as a general target would be that time frame.”
The Mets consider this “residual” from an injury that nagged him most of 2016. Cespedes was on the DL and missed nearly 20 games because of a right quad issue last season.
Alderson said the original injury Cespedes went on the DL for — a hamstring injury — has “come along nicely.”
Cespedes wanted to play Saturday, but the Mets pulled him instead.
After Cespedes went down with the hamstring issue April 28, Alderson, Terry Collins and the Met organization took a lot of criticism for how they handled that and other injuries.
Cespedes had been kept out of three straight games after feeling what he described as a “shock” in his left hamstring AP and then strained the same hamstring in his second game back.
“I think he’s an extraordinary athlete and that we need to make sure that he maintains that athleticism and does so on a dayto-day, and week-to-week basis,” Alderson said. “I think it’s hard for me to say, because it’s a hamstring, it’s been a quad. We had his back checked, as you know. I think that the key here is to make sure we have a comprehensive understanding of him physically and have a program that provides the kind of maintenance that he needs.”