Cespedes might not have gotten more money than Justin Upton in total like he deserved, but he will be returning to a city and team he throughly enjoyed playing for in 2015. $25 million/year seems about right for the talented Cuban star who just added yet another tool to his repertoire by earning a gold glove in 2015. However, like the baseball world has already seen in the playoffs, with Cespedes being an outfielder on the Mets’ squad, there are uncomfortable yet interesting combinations that manager, Terry Collins, could go with.
Since the beginning of the 2015 campaign, two new factors have come into play involving outfield depth. The first, was the hitting struggles of Juan Lagares who had just won a gold glove in his rookie 2014 campaign. The second, was the emergence of left field prospect, Michael Conforto. With Michael Cuddyer retiring, the tension definitely subsides a touch, but the Mets still have 4 legit starting outfielders. Michael Conforto showed promise with his bat and glove during his test of 56 major league games slugging .506 and saving 8 runs defensively. Curtis Granderson had a breakout season in his second 2nd year of his contract scoring nearly 100 runs. However, despite Juan Lagares again flashing the leather brilliantly for a second straight year, his defensive saber metrics did not match up to his 2014 campaign. All of these guys deserve to start, but there are 3 good options Terry Collins should look at.
Cespedes has to start no matter what, and the same goes for Granderson, unless they trade Grandy Man for a shortstop and catching prospect (still don’t have a solidified shortstop, and Travis d’Arneaud is injury prone). This option would leave Lagares in center, then Yoenis in left, and Conforto in right, or vice versa. The second option could be sitting Lagares, and use him as a backup, while Conforto starts roughly 150 games. The final and most legitimate plan would be to platoon Lagares and Conforto; whenever Conforto plays, Grandy will take spot in center where his better defensive numbers are. Overall though, Spring Training will be exciting for Mets, as fans observe who outplays who for the starting roles.
