Mets taking no risk with Cespedes
Terry Collins made a promise Tuesday that if the Mets played their scheduled game in that evening’s awful weather, one of the writers covering the team would be in left field before Yoenis Cepedes ever set foot on the wet grass.
Thankfully, it never got that far.
Though Cespedes, who had missed the previous three games with a sore left hamstring, was in the lineup posted in the Mets clubhouse, it was clear, given the weather, Collins had no intention of playing his superstar.
“The question is ‘Do you play Cespedes in this?’ ” the manager said, a little more than 90 minutes before the game with the Braves was postponed. “If we don’t play in it, we don’t have to worry about that question. ... Is it worth taking the chance to possibly lose him for an extended period of time? Going back to what we saw a year ago when he had the quad issue and we gave him two days off and he reinjured it anyway.
“So this is a night where I’m not sure it’s the smartest thing in the world to play him.”
Previously, Collins had said Cespedes would have to pass a battery of on-field tests before he was returned to the lineup. Tuesday’s weather made that impossible, but Cespedes had been given the green light anyway. Weather permitting, of course.
➤ Cespedes wasn’t the only injured starter deemed healthy enough to return.
Travis d’Arnaud was set to catch for the first time since April 19 when he left a game against the Phillies with a bruised right wrist. D’Arnaud, who pinch hit four times while waiting for the bruise to subside, said his wrist was “fine.”
“Get both those guys back is going to be big,” Collins said. “All of a sudden, you’re another one or two guys closer to having your regular lineup out there.”
➤ Jeurys Familia was scheduled to return to his closer role if the opportunity presented itself Tuesday, Collins said. The right-hander had been used in three nonsave situations since his April 19 return from a 15-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy. Familia has pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings. ➤ Tuesday’s game is scheduled to be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader Sept. 25. ... While the Mets chose to skip Robert Gsellman, Tuesday’s scheduled starter, so that Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey can stay in turn, the Braves will stick with ace Julio Teheran on Wednesday and R.A. Dickey on Thursday. That means crowd-favorite Bartolo Colon, who was scheduled to start Thursday, will not pitch in this series.