The Mets would like to see how Cespedes and his legs respond to a position that involves less sprinting than left field does.
After missing two months with a nagging hip injury, the Mets’ high-priced outfielder Yoenis Cespedes returned from the disabled list on Friday. Because the Mets were at Yankee Stadium, Cespedes was in the lineup as the designated hitter. He may play his usual position of left field soon.
But he may also try his hand at a new position, first base, which is yet another avenue the Mets are exploring in their attempt to keep their oft-injured dynamic hitter on the field as much as possible.
“It’s still in the early stages,” said John Ricco, the Mets’ assistant general manager. “But he’s committed to trying to increase his versatility and flexibility, which would be great for us.”
Cespedes, 32, has made four trips to the disabled list with a leg injury as a Met. He has played in less than half of the Mets’ games since he signed a four-year, $110 million deal to remain in New York before the 2017 season.
So as Cespedes went through his rehabilitation at the team’s spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla., he and the Mets talked about first base. Cespedes played two games in the outfield and Wednesday’s game at first base for a low-level minor league team.
While the Mets still view Cespedes as a left fielder — where he won a Gold Glove in 2015 and where his throwing arm is still an asset — they also want to see how he and his legs respond to a position that involves less running.
“He’s going to stay hot the whole game because he’s moving around,” Mets Manager Mickey Callaway said. “There’s not that component of standing out in left field for five, six minutes and then having to sprint 30 yards, dive and make a catch. We’re still really trying to determine that to make sure that’s the best spot for him.”
Cespedes will also debut a new and more extensive pregame routine to prepare his legs for games, as past ones clearly have not worked. And Callaway said the Mets hoped to be more proactive about Cespedes’s playing time, perhaps scratching him just before a game if the team’s training staff felt he was at risk of injury.
Callaway would not commit to a timetable for Cespedes’s first game at first base. (Including his time playing professionally in Cuba, Cespedes has been almost exclusively an outfielder.) But Callaway said the Mets wanted Cespedes to practice more and get more comfortable with the footwork around the base before his major league debut in the infield.
Any potential full-time switch could depend on that and the Mets’ future needs. And it may not occur until next season, after he spends the off-season and spring training working at the new position.
