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Mets’ Yoenis Cespedes says he won’t
speak to media during 2020 season
Yoenis Cespedes AP file photo
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | FEB. 21-27, 2020 41
SPORTS
BY JOE PANTORNO
Yoenis Cespedes is going to
keep everything close to the
vest this season.
As the Mets’ slugger becomes
more and more available
in 2020 after three injuryriddled
campaigns, he wants
no part in speaking with the
media.
“Not today, not tomorrow,
not at all this year,” he said
down in Port St. Lucie last
week when approached by reporters.
Cespedes missed the entire
2019 season after an offseason
run-in with a wild boar that
led to a fractured ankle.
It derailed his recovery process
from surgery on both of
his heels that limited his 2018
season to just 38 games.
Since the start of the 2017
season, he’s appeared in just
119 games.
His injury led to the Mets
reducing his 2020 salary from
$29 million to just $6 million,
though it could go up to $11
million if he makes the Opening
Day roster.
That could be a possibility
considering Cespedes has
shared the progress of his recovery
in recent weeks while
setting lofty goals for the 2020
season — which includes 50-
plus home runs in at least 140
games.
He took live batting practice
with the team last week.
It would be an enormous
addition to the middle of the
Mets lineup, which is already
looking promising with Pete
Alonso coming off a 53-homerun
season and Michael Conforto
adding a career-high 33
round-trippers.
In the last two seasons in
which he’s played at least 130
games, Cespedes eclipsed the
30-home-run mark, providing
the promise of that same output
if he stays healthy.
Slotting him in at the No. 3
or 4 spot makes the Mets that
much better in an NL East division
that is expected to be
one of the most tightly-contested
races in baseball.
But the last year or so of
scrutiny from the New York
media has taken its toll on Cespedes,
who will now enter 2020
as tight-lipped as ever.
And he remained defiant in
his explanation as to why, too.
“Because I don’t want to.”
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