YO GOTTA BELIEVE
CESPEDES DISPLAYING SOME EARLY SIGNS OF LEADERSHIP
THE Mets entered the 2018 season with a live-in-themoment, get-it-done vibe. They have taken Mickey Callaway’s mission statement to heart: Be accountable. Do your job.
There is a tinge of Bill Belichick in all this, but Callaway clearly has gotten through to his best player in Yoenis Cespedes, and that is his greatest triumph so far.
Cespedes may have finally found a comfortable baseball home, where he will stand up and be counted, the center of attention in the batter’s box and in the clubhouse.
Callaway sold Cespedes on hitting in the No. 2 spot. As Cespedes said: “That’s where you put your best hitter.”
In a 9-4 Opening Day win over Carlos Martinez and the Cardinals, Cespedes took a good 0-2 pitch from Martinez and lined it into left to drive in two runs in the second inning. He singled in another run in the Mets’ five-run fifth, sparking the salt-and-pepper celebration, spread-it-around offense.
Cespedes appeared in the Wednesday press conference with teammates Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier and was the first Met to meet the media at his locker after the Opening Day win.
Cespedes even seems to be enjoying the attention, and that is progress, too.
“Everybody is doing their thing that is important to the team, and that is what we are going to have to do during the season,” Cespedes said after the win. “We have the talent and the quality. We just have to work on the strike zone to choose better pitches and to make better swings.”
That is the essence of the hitting philosophy of Pat Roessler, who has taken over as hitting coach for Kevin Long, who moved onto the Nationals, and Roessler’s assistant Tom Slater, who spent nine years in the Yankees organization and has been a head coach at VMI and Auburn.
This is a teaching coaching staff.
And what does Cespedes have to do to be successful?
“I have to focus when I have men on base,” he said through interpreter Carlos Guillen. “I have to focus more.”
It has taken only one game for the Mets to set the tone Callaway wanted: We are in this together. If each player is accountable and does his job, the team will succeed. Call it the Callaway Effect. There were no fancy motiva- tional words on the clubhouse walls — those are gone — no pregame speech from Callaway. He is keeping it simple.
Everything is pointed to being ready on the field, and that seems to suit Cespedes’ mentality. Cespedes is a lifetime .293 hitter with runners in scoring position. In his injury-plagued 2017 season, Cespedes hit .254 with runners on second and third.
If Cespedes and the Mets can keep up this new approach, the offense will click and the pitching will take care of itself.
Opening Day brings adrenaline. Now comes the more difficult part as the Mets and Jacob deGrom host the Cardinals on Saturday at Citi Field, the first of 11 games in 12 days. The grind of the season begins.
Having veterans around him like Bruce, Frazier, Asdrubal Cabrera and Adrian Gonzalez also seems to be a boost for Cespedes. He can relate to baseball experiences. With Cespedes slotted in that No. 2 spot, the Mets have the opportunity to strike early as long as leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo and No. 9 hitter Amed Rosario can get on base. When Michael Conforto returns, he will slide into Nimmo’s spot.
That lineup can produce runs even though it’s the Yankees’ monster lineup that has garnered all the attention. The Mets pounded out 12 hits and worked nine walks on Opening Day. They were 5-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Both of Cespedes’ RBI hits came on 0-2 pitches.
Gonzalez’s RBI double in the fifth came on a 0-1 pitch. He spent most of spring training shortening his leg kick.
“We tried to stay with the game plan, try not to chase pitches out of the zone,” Gonzalez said. “Gotten better and better every day.”
Don’t try to do too much as a hitter. Gonzalez is in. Ditto Frazier, Bruce and Cabrera.
Most importantly, Cespedes is all in.