NEW YO, NEW YORK
Love affair with Gotham could keep Ces in city
YOENIS CESPEDES loves playing in New York. Does he love it enough to leave millions on the table from the Nationals and re-sign with the Mets?
That surprising possibility emerged on Thursday night as Cespedes went about deciding between a five-year offer from the Nationals and the parameters of a three-year offer from the Mets.
A source confirmed a report by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal that Cespedes was torn between the offers in part because he preferred to stay with the Mets.
The same source said the root of the Cuban defector’s indecision has as much to do with how much he enjoys playing and living in New York for its Latin culture and big-stage showcase as it does with the Mets.
“He’s played in four cities now,” said a person close to the situation, “and he’s told friends that he felt more at home in New York than anywhere else by far. It’s a great city for the Latin guys.
“And he thinks of himself as being the best of the best, like he’s made for New York.”
To that end, another source said that Cespedes’ agents, the Roc Nation group, reached out to the Yankees on Thursday to tell them of the slugger’s desire to stay in New York, and ask if they’d be willing to jump in with a three-year offer. All indications are that the Yankees have no such intentions, but the scenario itself is revealing and perhaps encouraging to the Mets.
As of Thursday night they remained firm on their position that they wouldn’t go beyond a three-year deal for Cespedes, but upon hearing of his willingness to consider that over the Nationals’ five-year, $100 million offer, a source said the Mets became more engaged and talked about increasing what they had been willing to offer.
It’s not known what they’re offering, but presumably it has to be more than $20 million per year. If Cespedes is truly going to take fewer years, it figures that he would insist on more money per year.
And certainly the Mets could be motivated to keep Cespedes from going to the Nationals. They may not have had a problem with letting Cespedes leave to sign a longterm deal elsewhere, but having him in their face 19 times a year with Washington could be a whole different matter.
For one thing, Cespedes could be the same difference-maker next year in a race between the two NL East rivals as he was last season — only this time he could put the Nationals, not the Mets, over the top. For another, with fans outraged by the Mets’ unwillingness to spend big to bring back Cespedes, his repeated appearances at Citi Field could stir a lot more anger from the ticketbuying public.
There’s no guarantee, of course, that Cespedes actually will choose to stay. It’s rare when any athlete takes a significantly lesser deal to play in one city over another.
But it’s possible Cespedes is confident enough to take more money per year over three years, believing he can go back out on the market at age 33 and still strike it big.
It’s also possible the Mets would agree to opt-out clauses in a three-year contract that would allow Cespedes to leave after his first or second year. Though opt-out clauses offer no real benefit for the team, in this case at least they would give the Mets some assurance that Cespedes would be highly motivated to continue cashing in — since that is their primary concern in refusing to offer him more than three years.
It’s also possible that Cespedes, who has a huge ego according to people who know him, feels disrespected that he isn’t commanding the type of deal Justin Upton received from the Tigers — six years, $132 million — and prefers to go for the higher annual money for now.
If Cespedes does wind up choosing the Nationals, he’s not a perfect fit for them, and probably would have to play center field — as he would with the Mets — for at least two years, until Jayson Werth’s contract runs out.
At the moment, the Nats have Werth and NL MVP Bryce Harper in the corner outfield spots, and only a couple of weeks ago they traded for Ben Revere to share center field duties with Michael Taylor. In any case, the Nats may be willing to spend on Cespedes because, much like the Tigers, they have an older owner — Ted Lerner is 90 — who is desperate to win a championship.
And surely they don’t mind sticking it to the Mets. The Nationals already have signed Daniel Murphy, so adding Cespedes would mean a lineup with two of the Mets’ most important cogs from their World Series run last season.
And while negotiating presumably continued into Thursday night, it figured to end fairly soon. In recent days the Roc Nation group told executives it expected a resolution by the end of the week, so one way or the other, Friday could be the day.