Sign Yoenis Cespedes for 5-years, $100 million
Look, I never said that these options weren’t crazy. To be clear, there is no way that Yoenis Cespedes is accepting any five-year deal. Just not happening. But if he did, and the money was right, the New York Yankees should jump all over it.
In 57 games with the New York Mets last season, Cespedes hit .287 with 17 homeruns and 44 runs batted in. He also had 66 hits, with 14 coming via doubles and four via triples. Cespedes finished the season batting .291, while hitting 35 homeruns and driving in 105.
By comparison, Carlos Beltran hit .276, while hitting 19 homeruns and driving in 76. While those numbers aren’t bad, per se, they are simply not good enough for a corner outfielder. Signing Cespedes on a club-friendly contract will shore up some of the outfield power problems that have plagued the Yankees since Curtis Granderson left for the New York Mets.
To put things into perspective, Cespedes hit just about as many homeruns (35) as Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Brett Gardner combined (42).
Case closed.
