Yoenis Cespedes & the Opt Out: Who's to Blame?




Earlier today, we heard on the Mets broadcast that Yoenis Cespedes was a No-show at the Mets game. Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen said that multiple attempts to reach Cespedes were unsuccessful and that the Mets had sent Security to check on Cespedes to make sure he was okay.  Upon Further Investigation, It was revealed that Cespedes and his belongings were packed up and no longer in his Hotel room. According to Van Wagenen after the Mets loss 4-0 loss to the Braves, The Agent of Yoenis Cespedes reached out to Management to say that Cespedes had opted out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 related reasons.

Following this, Mets Fans all over Social Media started throwing blame at the organization, at the Cespedes camp, at Van Wagenen and some even at the Players and manager Luis Rojas. Let's break this down and explain why it's only Cespedes to blame and not anyone else.

There have been a lot of players who opted out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns who rightfully had the power to Opt-out no questions asked. However, in the case of Yoenis Cespedes, while we shouldn't and won't judge the reason for his opt-out, the way he handled the situation and how it was handled by his camp deserves lots of Judgement. 

Cespedes didn't tell any Mets management of his intention to Opt-Out until mid-game. Rojas and the players supposedly had no idea about this intention. According to some writers that cover the Mets, Cespedes had informed some players of his intention. Fans seem to be holding onto this saying that Players should've spoke up about this information. It's not on the Players to inform management of a ones intention to opt-out, but the player himself to do so. 

Ownership or management aren't to blame due to the fact that they did their jobs on their end in attempting to reach out to Cespedes, but they failed to get in contact. When this happened, they sent Team security to the team hotel and during that time, they found out from The Agent of Yoenis Cespedes that he was opting out. There was nothing that ownership or management could do from there. It's simply baffling to think ownership is to blame or even management when they did everything they could've done. If the payer doesn't inform the team of his intentions and doesn't let them know until his agent calls them, that's 100% on the Player!

According to a report from the Athletic, It's said that Cespedes had opted out due to health concerns of his mother who was sick and that his intentions to play had changed due to the COVID-19 outbreaks within the Miami Marlins and the St.Louis Cardinals. 

While the reason for Cespedes opting out is completely Understandable, the way he handled the situation was terrible and the optics aren't good or in his favor at all. 

According to other reports though, Cespedes was frustrated about other things:

A. Frustration with his contract was restructured after he violating said contract
B. Frustration with where he was in the lineup
C. Frustration with getting Days off & 

D. Frustration with not getting enough at-bats to fulfill incentives in contract was unsatisfied with multiple things.

These reasons listed go hand-in-hand as to why he opted out along with the COVID reasons. During his post-game presser, manager Luis Rojas stated that he no idea that Cespedes was going to out and told media that he always had positive conversations with Cespedes. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, However this leaves a lot of opportunities for Mets players which I'll dive into in the next entry.

All in all, The way Cespedes handled the situation of wanting to opt out and the optics of it are all terrible and are on Yoenis Cespedes and Yoenis Cespedes alone. Not ownership, not Management, not the players, but Cespedes himself!

Until the Next article my Friends!

LETS GO METS!!!

Comments

Popular Posts