Viva La Potencia

The Mets resigned Yoenis Cespedes for 4-years and $110M.
It's a slight overpay for a guy who is like a 3.5 - 4 WAR player, but not so outrageous when you factor in other things such as the Mets really needed him, he's one guy who has proven he can hit in CitiField and most importantly, they got him on a 4 year deal through his age 34 season.
I like the deal and I am happy with it but it means the Mets absolutely positively get rid of Bruce or Granderson or both.
Trading Bruce would bring back very little, meaning they would take a big hit on a trade that netted almost nothing.
Keeping Bruce and getting rid of Granderson would be high ceiling, if Bruce can rebound after two dreadful months in New York, but his age may make Granderson a little harder to deal.
I wouldn't mind getting rid of both and giving Conforto, Lagares and Nimmo more time to develop.
But they absolutely cannot saddle this great young pitching staff with an outfield of Granderson, Cespedes and Bruce, which would be historically bad defensively.

A Big Dropoff in Horsepower

Yoenis Cespedes downgraded horsepower on his latest method of transportation to Mets camp.
From 800 or so for his Lamborghini to 1.

Cespedes rode a horse. And even put on a cowboy hat. And he got Noah Syndergaard to ride with him.

Cespedes Isn't Cheap Either

For $27m the Mets bought themselves a power-hitting outfielder with a rocket arm.
Yoenis Cespedes turned around and spent a lot of that money and fancy cars and motorcycles (kinda), showing up for the first week of spring training in a different one every day.

Starting with a customized Polaris slingshot

Then it was a Lamborghini Aventador which allegedly spits fire out of the exhaust pipes like the Batmobile. He reported let a Mets staffer drive it to go get waffles.
The car reportedly costs more than $400,000.

Next up, an Alfa Romeo Competizione, which costs $250,000 and had been driven around by Wilmer Flores.

But those cars are so impractical, he needs something more down-to-earth, like this Jeep. Which after all the modifications (done by a company called "Avorza" whose name appears on several of these vehicles) cost a mere $80,000.

And then there's his Ford F-250 truck which had $30,000 of upgrades done by Avorza.

And finally, Cespedes rolled up in another Slingshot, this one likely for days when he's feeling down, because it's painted blue, as opposed to red.

Ambivalence

The Mets have signed Yoenis Cespedes for 3 years, $75 million, with $27.5 million in the first year and an opt-out for Cespedes after year 1.
I like the deal. I think the Mets got a good player for a short contract. It's a lot of money, but in baseball nowadays it's better to pay more money for fewer years, than to get a long-term discount.
The Mets get an excellent hitter, a right-handed power bat, something they didn't have.
If he hits the way he did last year for the Mets, at an MVP level, he will make the entire lineup better and be well worth the money.
And he will do it all while giving the Mets another year to evaluate Lagares and Conforto while not totally relying on them to perform.

BUT... This move really hurts the Mets defense. Lagares is a great centerfielder and Yoenis is a very good leftfielder. Cespedes is an average centerfielder and Conforto was good last year, but there's reason to believe he benefited from a small sample size.
The Mets are spending a lot of money on two bad defensive middle infielders (Cabrera & Walker) and weakening the outfield too might be a bad idea, especially in a big park.

Also, Cespedes is not as good as he was last year. His OPS in 2013 and 2014 were 736 and 751. Last year he improved to 870. If he reverts to sub-800, he would not have the positive impact we hope for. Also, he would not have the suitors next year and would like opt in for two more years with the Mets.

Lastly, I don't like his attitude. He's made some bone-headed plays and he doesn't always try hard.

In summary, if we get the Cespedes of late 2015, the Mets made a great move.
If we get the Cespedes of 2013 & 2014, we're stuck with a basically average outfielder at an exorbitant cost for 3 years.

Only time, and Cespedes will tell.

2015 NLDS Game 3: Mets 13 Dodgers 7

Thanks to the connections of Master Bates, I was able to attend Game 3 of the NLDS at Citifield.
After the controversial Utley slide, emotions were running high, especially when Ruben Tejada limped onto the field in pregame introductions.

The game got off to a rough start as Matt Harvey, clearly without his best stuff, allowed 4 straight hits and 3 runs in the second inning.

But the Mets immediately turned that around and Curtis Granderson got a huge hit off a lefty (he struggled vs lefties all season, finishing with a 559 OPS against them), a bases-clearing double.

Harvey settled down a little, and then d'Arnaud homered to make it 6-3 and Cespedes put the final nail in the coffin with a three run homer to make it 10-3.

From our seats in left field

we had a great view of both home runs, passing right in front of us. d'Arnaud's was in doubt, but Cespedes's was a bomb.

Cespedes with quite the bat flip, justifiably excited.

The atmosphere for the entire game was awesome. Mets fans being happy and excited to have such a good team and such a good chance to win this series now.

And I was thrilled to have gotten to share this special moment with my family.