The gripping mystery of what happened to Yoenis Cespedes now has a
fitting conclusion. According to General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen, the
Mets outfielder/DH decided to opt out of the 2020 season citing
Coronavirus concerns.
The
announcement came as a bit of a surprise after the Mets issued a
statement earlier in the day Sunday stating that they had no idea
concerning the whereabouts of Cespedes, and any communication with the
outfielder failed.
Cespedes never showed up to the ballpark - a game the Mets would lose to the Atlanta Braves 4-0 to drop to 3-7 on the season.
During
the Mets post game press conference, Van Wagenen told reporters that he
had finally made contact with Cespedes and found out mid-game that the
left fielder decided to opt out of the season. The Mets GM added that
the team sent hotel security to his room and found it empty, all of
Cespedes stuff was packed up. According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, Cespedes
got up and left and through his agent informed the team of his decision.
Cespedes joins a long list of players in
Major League Baseball who have opted out due to COVID-19. However he
took the most bizarre and inconsiderate route to do so. While COVID-19
is a huge concern for Major League Baseball, and there is a real
possibility that the season will be canceled at a moments notice due to
the high number of positive cases around the sport, Cespedes handled
this poorly.
He should have notified the
Mets about his decision sooner. He forced the Mets hand, made them panic
unnecessarily and put his team in a position to fail. All the blame lies with Cespedes here. While everyone respects his
decision to opt out for health reasons, getting up and leaving in a
lurch feels like a sour grapes from a player who is tired of playing on a
losing team more than anything else.
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