This was a week, all right. Even by New York Mets standards, it was a week. On Friday, nearing the 4 p.m. ET trading deadline, they acquired outfielder Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers for two prospects, pending physicals. It was the getting-there, however, that required patience, a hanky and a willingness to follow the tiny bouncing apple.
They’d been walked-off once. Their closer blew a couple saves – one, Thursday, on each side of a rain delay.
They’d discovered a raccoon in the weight room. They’d traded for a reliever (Tyler Clippard) to help set up their suddenly wobbly closer, and before that added Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson.
They’d had one of their set-up men, a former closer who’d just returned from the suspended list, return to the suspended list for doing the same thing that got him suspended in the first place, as apparently he’d fallen face-first into the same pile of PEDs.
The general manager – Sandy Alderson – was rendered “shocked” and “incredulous” by Jenrry Mejia’s casual relationship with the Joint Drug Agreement.
Shocked and incredulous were just stretching their hamstrings, however.
For on Wednesday, they agreed to the trade that would bring them Carlos Gomez, yet backpedaled when they – pick one – either didn’t like Gomez’s hips or didn’t like their own cold feet. As this was being documented across the Internet, the shortstop who was to be sent to Milwaukee for Gomez was at Citi Field. And at shortstop. And getting trade updates from the fans. And so he played the game while he mopped his own tears with his jersey sleeve.
Wilmer Flores was told – heh, heh – it was all a big mistake, that he wasn’t traded at all, so chin up, young man!
Which left the Mets pretty much where they’d started, before the raccoon, before the Clippard trade, before the Mejia issues and the Jeurys Familia issues and before they’d decided Gomez would not be their guy, and that is without the very thing they absolutely had to have by the evening of July 31: some sort of middle-of-the-order offense.
See, first they also have the issue of the Washington Nationals, who, for a lot of reasons, haven’t been as capable as most believed they’d be. They’re still capable enough to be three games ahead of the Mets in the NL East, but, from the Mets’ point of view, that’s a manageable deficit so long as they were able to turn a good trade or two.
So along comes Yoenis Cespedes, the 29-year-old right-handed hitter who once hit 26 home runs and has 18 already this year, who is batting .293 with 61 RBI, who once won a Home Run Derby at Citi Field. He isn’t Mike Piazza but probably isn’t Jason Bay either. He’ll be a free agent at the end of the season, which wasn’t exactly the kind of contract situation Alderson had in mind – Gomez and, for another, Jay Bruce, were under contract through next season – but the deadline was near and the Mets needed a bat. Cespedes is a left fielder, which will allow the Mets to keep Curtis Granderson in right, rather than move him to center. Things do get complicated when Michael Cuddyer comes off the disabled list, but the Mets aren’t in a position for sentiments.
The Tigers acquired right-handed pitchers Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa in the deal, with Fulmer being the better regarded of two.
WSCR-AM in Chicago was first to report the trade.
Cespedes’ departure from the Tigers continues a rebuild there. GM Dave Dombrowski, also a potential free agent at season’s end, has turned David Price, Joakim Soria and now Cespedes into a new direction.
A busy, interesting week for the Tigers, to be sure. But, no raccoons.
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