As the New York Mets’ season is completely lost, the continuing absence of outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has stuck out like a sore thumb. Cespedes has been sidelined since mid-May with a hip injury that he initially suffered against the Colorado Rockies on May 6th. That injury morphed into a quad problem when Cespedes attempted to play in rehab games in early June, and there hasn’t been much news about him ever since. That changed this week, when Cespedes finally reported that his hip area was pain free and started a running progression on Monday, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports.
Manager Mickey Callaway revealed prior to Tuesday’s game with the Toronto Blue Jays that the goal for Cespedes was to get him to be pain free before he ran again, hence the insistence on a physical therapy program. Cespedes ran at about 75% on Monday, and was slated for an off day yesterday before beginning a full range of baseball activities today. The Mets will need to see Cespedes get to 100% running without incident before they commit to another rehab assignment, and he figures to need at least a couple of games before they activate him from the DL. With the season all but over, the Mets are in no really hurry to get Cespedes back, so they can afford to make sure he’s fully healthy before he comes back to the lineup.
The big question for the Mets is if they have found a way to try and keep their star slugger in the lineup for the long term. Since signing his four year contract in November of 2016, Cespedes has appeared in just 118 of the Mets’ 245 games to date, a shade above 48%. That won’t cut it for the team’s highest paid player, so the Mets have to find a way to try and keep Cespedes healthy if they hope to turn things around next season. That has proven to be a difficult task given Cespedes’ propensity for leg muscle injuries that linger without properly healing.
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