This team finally catches a break
SERIOUSLY, can the Moors and the Moops furnish a supply of bubble wrap with which the Mets can envelop Yoenis Cespedes’ lower body in order to protect the now impossibly fragile outfielder from further harm?
For after proclaiming earlier that “I would say that if I am not already 100 percent, there’s not much more until I get there,” Cespedes was soon on his way to the dugout, forced off the field in the sixth inning of Saturday’s 9-3 victory over the Rockies after suffering a hip issue in an awkward dive when his knee caught in the turf while attempting to snare a Nolan Arenado one-out bloop to shallow left that fell for a double. What else is new? Perhaps that the injury is not believed serious. No, really. “There is just a little discomfort with the hip but the doctor said there is nothing serious,” Cespedes said through an interpreter following the game that he exited with the Mets leading, 8-0. “I think I could definitely have kept playing but with the score, he decided to play it safe.”
That would be manager Terry Collins, who would like to see stars in front of his eyes rather than on the disabled list. The manager called the move, “pretty much more of a precaution than anything,” but one day has a way of turning into two and two turning into extended absences both for this team that has won 10 of its past 16 games and for this all but indispensable player who just has not been able to stay healthy for an extended period of time.
True, though, that this is not a muscular issue of any kind, so there is that salve to apply to this wound.
Given the combination of the pitching staff’s implosion and the generally sloppy baseball played by the Mets throughout the season’s first 4 ¹/2 months, it would be inaccurate to pin the club’s pre-break state of affairs primarily on Cespedes’ bad wheel and corresponding lack of production at the plate.
But it cannot be disputed that the Mets’ legitimacy as a threat is as enhanced by Cespedes’ presence now as it was July 31, 2015, when his acquisition from Detroit jumpstarted the team’s starry run to the World Series.
This is why the Cuban’s 4for-6 performance at the plate on Friday that included both his first extrabase hit (a hustle double) since June 23 and an infield hit that he legged out in the eighth inning of a 14-2 victory was so important.
Perhaps equally as important as the left fielder’s comments on Saturday before Seth Lugo threw 6 2/3 impressive innings to keep the ball rolling for a team that had been 6-0 since June 12 in games started by Jacob deGrom, but 6-14 otherwise.
“I think the break helped me a lot. It was awfully good to have that many days off,” said Cespedes, who was 1-for-3 before leaving Saturday’s game. “I even ran on [Friday] without my [thigh brace].” Maybe knee pads, next? The Mets need Cespedes at full strength. They need him to supply some juice to an active roster that has been decidedly low wattage.
“If he’s out, we’ll do the best we can,” Collins said. “Do I think we can? Yeah. We have to.”
Cespedes has dealt with myriad leg issues since July of 2016. He has been limited to just 175 plate appearances and 20 RBIs, having spent five weeks on the DL from late April to early June with a hamstring problem. Now this.
Again, maybe this is for just a day. Perhaps not even that, with Cespedes suggesting that he should be able to go Sunday afternoon in the series finale.
Still, though, let’s face reality. If Cespedes cannot stay healthy, the Mets won’t have a leg to stand on.