By Brendan O’Connell
Yoenis Cespedes has been living it up during his time in Florida. (Courtesy of Wikimedia)
After re-signing with the New York Mets in late January to the tune of up to three years and about $75 million, Yoenis Cespedes has come into Spring Training raring to go.
The defending National League champions have many individual and team goals in mind as they enter camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Chief among them is finishing the season with a World Series title, but as they know, that is the culmination of achieving countless smaller objectives.
A naturally aggressive hitter, Cespedes, a two-time Home Run Derby champion, is looking to alter his approach under the guidance of hitting coach Kevin Long. By shifting his strategy at the plate to being more selective, contact-oriented, and balanced, Cespedes and the Mets hope the result is an increase in walks, fewer wasted pitches and at-bats and a more evenly-distributed spray chart, without losing the power and run production that makes him so dangerous and valuable. Moreover, in his first full season with the team, both sides hope that he emerges as even more of a leader on and off the field, especially in terms of production, morale and chemistry.
The 30-year-old outfielder also has his own agenda to see through: stand out.
A noted automobile enthusiast, Cespedes arrived to Spring Training on Feb. 21 in a gargantuan, white custom Ford F-250. Later that week, the Cuban all-star whipped into camp in a three-wheeled, roofless, grey and red, number 52-monogrammed Polaris Slingshot, and was greeted by a swarm of photographers as he stepped out of his Transformers-esque vehicle. He paired that with another Polaris Slingshot, this one adhering to a black and blue color scheme decorated with a four-leaf clover. Additionally, he showed off a luxurious Lamborghini Aventador (valued at upwards of $400,000), ornate with blue trim and a number 52 emblem, a shiny black coat of paint, and a tricked-out “fire-breathing” apparatus, as well as a fancy, bright red Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione (worth about $250,000) and an awe-inspiring, massive white and red Jeep Wrangler. To cap it all off, he strolled in alongside teammate Noah Syndergaard donning a cowboy hat and perched atop a beautiful blonde horse named Candy.
Oh, and at the annual St. Lucie County Fair, he bought himself a 275-pound hog.
With these kinds of stunts, the 2015 Gold Glover has been in many of the Mets’ Spring Training headlines and a trending topic of conversation on social media. Hopefully for Cespedes, who is set to make $27.5 million this season in base salary, he leaves some room in his budget for the necessities in life – you know, food, shelter and retirement savings.
So far this spring, Cespedes has proven that he is not going to sit back and relax this season. Right out of the gate, he is working toward bettering his game and helping his team, and is coming into his fifth MLB season in style, as well as something to prove. He’s saddling up for what he expects to be his best year yet, and the Mets and their fans are counting on him to bring home the bacon, with this behavior being simply a fun, inconsequential stunt rather than a damaging distraction.
