AMAZIN’ MESS!
Mets fumble Ces situation, ship out Familia, then lose to Yanks
Matt den Dekker (l.), Brandon Nimmo and rest of Mets are a picture of confusion during loss in Bronx on Saturday.
So late Friday night, via his first public comments in a month, Yoenis Cespedes drops a bombshell, telling the world he needs surgery on his heels that will require eight to 10 months of rehab.
And the Mets essentially react the next day by pretending they hadn’t heard of it, at least according to Mickey Callaway.
Nor would any of their three interim GMs care to address it, thank you very much.
Man, you have to give the Mets credit. They may be having a rough year on the ballfield, but they lead the league in chaos and dysfunction, and they are no one-year wonders in that department.
The disconnect between the front office and Cespedes is one part of the equation: He may be a headache to deal with, but I get the feeling the Mets are using that as an excuse not to make every effort to communicate with him about his various injuries, something that would have prevented them from being taken completely by surprise Fri- day night.
At least some Mets people think Cespedes may be exaggerating the extent of the problem with his heels because he was stung by comments a few weeks ago from Sandy Alderson hinting at a need to play through a “chronic” leg injury, as well as Callaway, who referenced the Cuban star’s high salary while lamenting his absence.
Meanwhile, the ongoing disconnect with the fan base is no less significant. Untold numbers of fans woke up to the news of Cespedes’ comments on Saturday, wondering what exactly they meant for him and the ballclub, and the Mets made no real attempt to explain.
So many questions begged for answers.
After all, the guy is finally back from the disabled list, after going underground for more than two months, his only comment during that time being that it didn’t look like he could help a ballclub playing as badly as the Mets ... And he’s talking about surgery?
More to the point, if he actually needs the surgery and the extended rehab, why is he still playing at all in what is a lost season?
Shouldn’t he get the surgery immediately so that he doesn’t wind up missing most of next season as well?
Furthermore, there are bigpicture ramifications to any such surgery. For if Cespedes is going to be lost for a major portion of 2019, it’s all the more reason for the Mets to consider trading one of their star pitchers, either Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard, and rebuild at least to some extent.
All of this required answers more from a Mets executive than the manager, yet Callaway was the only one to speak on behalf of the ballclub Saturday. And he made the situation worse by claiming to be unaware of what Cespedes had said. That seemed hard to believe, as people close to the situation say the manager pays close attention to what is written and said in the media, and indeed Mets people made a point later of saying Callaway simply wasn’t sure enough to address the specifics of what Cespedes said.
In any case, whatever was going on, it was a bad look. Callaway did say the Mets were aware Cespedes has had soreness in his heels for years,
Mets can’t escape chaos, even in the House that Ruth Built
but “we thought his heels were in a really good spot” when they decided to activate him Friday.
The manager then went on to announce that Cespedes was so sore, after DHing Friday night, he was out of Saturday’s lineup. Sore? Where is he sore? “It’s all interconnected,” Callaway said. “He’s just sore. He ran that ground ball out, he came back, he was really sore. All those things interconnected.”
He was sore from running out one ground ball? Good grief, this is becoming more of a disaster by the day.
By the time the pre-game press conference ended, Mets PR people seemed to realize the need for front-office input. Reporters were told that Omar Minaya would address the media when he arrived at Yankee Stadium.
Minaya seemed like a logical choice, since he apparently was the only executive to speak directly to Cespedes during his two-plus months on the disabled list, but at some point the plan changed and reporters were told nobody from the front office would speak on the subject until they had time to talk to the doctors involved.
Which prompted another obvious question: How is it possible nobody talked to the doctors about the situation previously?
Now, I understand the Mets were busy on Saturday putting the final touches on a trade of Jeurys Familia to the A’s for a couple of so-so prospects.
But at the very least, Minaya could have provided some clarity on all things Cespedes, presumably after having a conversation with the star outfielder, and perhaps quieted the chaos.
By the end of the day, after the Mets’ 7-6 loss to the Yankees, Callaway announced that Cespedes is seeing a foot specialist and getting an MRI on Monday, which is obviously the biggest concern here.
But when the manager also said that, in the meantime, he wasn’t necessarily ruling Cespedes out of Sunday’s game, it just seemed to be a fitting post-script to the day.