CATCH YO LATER
CES BACK TO FLORIDA FOR MORE REHAB AFTER LATEST SETBACK
Day-to-day is becoming monthto-month for Yoenis Cespedes. What started as a minor injury will likely keep the slugging outfielder out for well over a month.
Manager Mickey Callaway said in his pregame press conference Sunday, Cespedes, out since May 13, is headed to the team’s spring training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla. after he felt tightness in his right quad/hip in a rehabilitation assignment with Double-A Binghamton in Trenton on Saturday.
Cespedes doubled twice in the minor league game, but he felt discomfort on the second hit, when he had to run close to full speed, and came out.
“He feels like he’s not quite ready, so we’re going to send him to Florida to start that day-to-day process of getting it where it needs to be,” Callaway said of Cespedes, who is slashing .255/ .316/.474 in 37 games with a .790 OPS, eight home runs and 28 RBIs. “It’s not a total setback to Day 1, but [he’s] still not feeling the way he would like to feel to come up here and contribute.”
Callaway said he is unsure whether Cespedes will need to be shut down for a few days. That has yet to be determined. Cespedes, 32, was placed on the disabled list on May 14, after playing through the pain for more than a week. The plan was for Cespedes to rejoin the mightily struggling team in Atlanta on Tuesday, but that’s out of the question now. The Mets are unsure about when he’ll return.
“We don’t know,” Callaway said before the Mets tried to avoid a Subway Series sweep at the hands of the Yankees at Citi Field on Sunday night. “We thought Tuesday was going to be it. It’s kind of day-to-day.”
Or, to be more accurate, monthto-month.
The Mets downward spiral had already began by the time Cespedes went down, but it has continued without him in the lineup. They have gone 8-16 since he was shelved, and the offense has been punchless, averaging 3.4 runs per game in the 24 games he’s been out.
“We were excited about the prospect of getting him back in a few days, but like we said before, we can’t let these injuries stop us from doing what we need to do,” Callaway said. “We have other major league players that can step up and get the job done, and that’s what we have to do.”
Callaway defended how the Mets handled the Cespedes injury, by continuing to play him when it was evident he wasn’t close to 100 percent. He played in six games after initially hurting the quad/hip, and was clearly not moving well in the outfield, before finally going on the disabled list May 14.
“If we took that approach, then we wouldn’t even be fielding a team today, because we have guys that are playing through stuff right now,” Callaway said. “You really can’t just right when somebody starts feeling something just take him out of the lineup and put him on the disabled list or you never have a full team.”
Then again, this has been an issue with the Mets and Cespedes the last two years, letting him play at less than 100 percent, then being without him even longer as a result. Since signing him to a fouryear, $110 contract prior to last season, he has played in 119of-223 games. General manager Sandy Alderson recently said he was surprised Cespedes’ injury has taken as long as it has to recover from, but that it is a “somewhat chronic” issue that he may have to learn to manage. Callaway didn’t rule that out, either.
“I think that’s what everybody’s trying to determine, even Ces’ himself. When he initially went on the disabled list, it was to knock this completely out so he could come back and be the healthy player he wants to be,” the manager said. “As this continues to move forward, and it continues to drag on, there has to be a level of understanding that it’s maybe something you battle throughout the rest of your career.
“But I don’t think we’re at that point yet. The goal is still to get him to where he can be out there and feel normal.”
It’s just taking longer than anyone expected.