Yoenis Cespedes Kind of Trashes the Mets
Yoenis Cespedes kind of, sort of trashed the Mets, the city of New York and Terry Collins all in one interview. And we thought this guy could do it all even before this!
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that hit the Internet during Friday’s game with the A’s, who originally signed Cespedes after he defected from Cuba, Cespedes said he left his heart in Oakland.
“I still love the A’s, they were the first team to give me an opportunity to play in the big leagues,’ Céspedes said. “I love Oakland all the time.”
The man who just signed a four-year deal with the Mets even said he wants to go back there.
“I wish that happens,” Céspedes said. “I told (Jerry) Blevins, ‘I don’t know how many years I’m going to play, but I’m going to play the last year of my career with Oakland.’ I don’t know if that’s possible or not, but that’s my goal.”
And if that wasn’t enough, he took what could be perceived as a slap at Collins while praising former manager Bob Melvin.
“I tell my guys here all the time that he’s the best manager for me so far,” Céspedes said. “I don’t think there’s a better manager than Melvin.”
Why would Cespedes do this? It is understandable that he would want to give a positive interview to an old home-team reporter. But there was a way to do it without disrespecting his current team.
Cespedes could have one thing on which to fall back. Susan Slusser wrote that it was “a rare interview conducted entirely in English.” Cespedes could always say he didn’t mean for his comments to come out the way they did, blaming it on his poor command of English. Yeah, that could work.
Either way, the comments from Yoenis Cespedes were ill-advised. And considering his disappointing play this year, harder to forgive.