The curse the New York Mets are apparently under seems to keep intensifying. The team has faced all sorts of weird injuries in the last couple of seasons, including Noah Syndergaard heading to the DL with hand, foot and mouth disease last year and Michael Conforto getting concussed running into Robinson Cano last week. And now, outfielder Yoenis Cespedes (who hadn’t played since last July and was rehabbing from surgeries to remove calcification in both heels) has suffered multiple fractures to his right ankle thanks to a “violent fall” at his Florida ranch:
"He had a violent fall in which he stepped in a hole and put his leg and foot in a difficult position" – Brodie Van Wagenen on Yoenis Cespedes's injury pic.twitter.com/56LYVZ0RZ6
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 20, 2019
Cespedes suffered a "violent fall" and twisted his right ankle in a hole, per GM Brodie Van Wagenen. He was not riding a horse, the GM said, but it was a non-baseball related activity. Van Wagenen did not elaborate further, and did not offer a timeline for Cespedes' recovery.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) May 20, 2019
Strangely enough, this first emerged with reports that Cespedes had broken both of his ankles, but those were later amended to multiple fractures in the right ankle:
van wagenen said fractures, and clarified later it was the right ankle. mentioned it was a “violent fall” but not off a horse. https://t.co/4qvcSmvcqu
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) May 20, 2019
To be clear, it is multiple fractures of Cespedes’ right ankle, suffered during a “violent fall” off a non-horse at his ranch. There you go.
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) May 20, 2019
This is just the latest example of how badly things have gone for Cespedes since he was traded to the Mets midseason in 2015, and since he signed a three-year $75 million deal with them during the 2016 offseason, then opted out after the first year to sign another four-year, $110 million contract with them in 2017. His games played by season in particular have taken a sharp downturn; he played in 129 games in 2012, 135 in 2013, 152 in 2014 and 159 in 2015, but then just 132 in 2016, 81 in 2017 and 38 last year. And his production has dropped off too even when he has played; he went from a .287/.337/.604 slash line in 2015 to .280/.354/.530 in 2016, .292/.352/.540 in 2017, and .262/.325/.496 last year.
This current DL stint (following last July’s heel surgeries) was Cespedes’ fifth in four seasons in New York. And his recovery time was initially listed as eight to 10 months; 10 months is just about up. But it now looks like he’ll be out for at least the rest of this year. And he turns 34 in October and has a massive injury history; it’s fair to wonder if he’ll ever make it back to effectiveness at the major-league level. Either way, though, the Mets will be paying him; they had paid him $79 million in total through the end of last season, and owe him another $58.5 million through this season and the next.
[MLB.com]
