It was easily the wildest 24 hours the New York
Mets have experienced in years, and that is saying something.
Let’s quickly recap.
·
The Mets were held to three hits over the final
two games of a three-game sweep at the hands of the Miami Marlins. By Sunday
afternoon the calls for Manager Mickey Callaway to be fired only grew louder by
each out.
·
On Monday afternoon, General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen endorsed Callaway and said he would remain manager for “the foreseeable
future.”
·
In the same press conference, Van Wagenen
announced Yoenis Cespedes, who just recently began running, fractured his right
ankle during a fall at a Port St. Lucie Ranch. (Did he fall of a horse? Fall
into a giant hole? Nobody really knows).
·
Robbinson Cano was benched for not hustling in
Miami.
·
The Mets got blasted by fans and the media –
with some calling the franchise dysfunctional.
·
The Mets jumped out to a 4-0 lead against
Washington, holding on to win 5-3.
Yeah, it’s been interesting. Now the big question remains: what do the
ramifications of Monday’s zaniness mean moving forward?
On Mickey Callaway:
Before Monday’s news conference, one could argue that Brodie Van Wagenen
had every right to move on from Callaway for the simple fact that Callaway was
not his hire. Most General Managers want
to hire their own guy to manage a team. However, with his endorsement of the
embattled manager, Van Wagenen has tied himself to Callaway’s fate.
"Mickey
is our manager now. Mickey is our manager going forward," Van Wagenen said
Monday. "We're not looking to blame a manager. He has our full support to
lead this team for the foreseeable future."
“We built this
team in the front office. We believe that this team has the ability to contend,
the same way we said that in the offseason loudly and proudly. The
accountability that will ultimately fall on this team, I want to place on my
shoulders," Van Wagenen said. “At the end of the day, this is our team.
We're proud of it, we believe in it.”
While it is
honorable that Van Wagenen is trying to show leadership by defending his
manager and players, he has squarely put himself in front of the freight train
of the New York spotlight.
Van Wagenen is the
one who made the trade for Cano and his five-year contract at age 37.
He is also the one
who brought in Wilson Ramos, who has struggled offensively.
Van Wagnen brought
back Jeruys Familia who has an ERA over six, and signed Jed Lowrie to a
two-year $20 million deal. And Lowrie
still hasn’t played a game for the Mets yet.
So far it has been
a lot more misses than hits for the rookie General Manager. If the Mets
struggles persist, who is to say the Wilpon’s won’t look at Van Wagenen as well
as Callaway when trying to assess blame later this year.
The Future of
Yoenis Cespedes:
With another year left
on the four-year $110 million deal he signed in 2016, the future of Cespedes is
certainly in doubt. He will most definitely miss the rest of this season after
fracturing multiple bones in his ankle, and there is legitimate question about
his chances to comeback in 2020 now.
Remember Cespedes
was coming off multiple heel surgeries that would have cost him a good chunk of
this season. Now the Mets can forget him being a factor at all.
The question is
how can the Mets recoup the money? Cespedes is due to make $29 million this
season and $29.5 million next year. The Mets are insured for Cespedes’ heel
surgeries, much the same way they were insured on David Wright’s contract.
In order to recoup
his salary, the Mets need proof that Cespedes hurt himself. There is precedent
for this. In 2010, former Mets closer Francisco ‘K-Rod’ Rodriguez tore
ligaments in his thumb when he tried to attack with his father-in-law. The Mets
were able to get K-Rod to forfeit $3 million from his contract. As VanWagenen
pointed out, the Mets will investigate further.
Bottom line,
Cespedes’ days as a Met are likely over. It is a tremendous fall from grace for
a player who came to New York in 2015 to much fanfare. Cespedes was one of the
more feared hitters in the sport, and it showed when he crushed 17 homers for
the Mets down the stretch of the ’15 campaign as the Mets made the playoffs en
route to a National League title.
Since it has been
nothing but a nightmare as the former All Star has battled numerous injuries
since 2016.
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