YOENNIS CESPEDES: BYB'S TAKE

The most recent big name to pop up in the free agent market is Yoennis Cespedes. Cespedes recently defected from Cuba and is using the Dominican to showcase his talents. He became a cult Internet sensation in the past few days with his hilarious, bizarre scouting video that had big league executives all over scratching their heads. For those of you who missed it, it contains numerous explosive home runs put to Christopher Cross' "Sailing", a few pointless behind the back catches, Cespedes leg pressing a full rack of weights plus two friends lying on the bar, an extended core workout, shirtless sprinting, a 350 pound bench press, what I presume was his family dancing around, and a bloody pig on a rotisserie spit.Did I mention the opening credits are a full blown Star Wars homage beginning with the words "A New Hope"? The video is available for viewing on the MLB website, but it's missing the hysterically random ending minutes. Many blogs are claiming that the full video is nowhere to be found, but Bleeding Yankee Blue found it:



Baseball Prospectus' David Goldstein has a great, in-depth look at both the amazing video and Yoennis Cespedes' abilities HERE.

Cespedes is an extremely athletic right handed center fielder with plus-power and plus-speed. That power is especially noticeable to the opposite field, a trait that would no doubt help him thrive in the Bronx. Initial reports say that the Yankees are very high on Cespedes. He's expected to command an Aroldis Chapman type deal, which is to say a minimum of 6 years, $30 million. Frankly that's chump change for the Yankees and I have a feeling if they really like what they see they'll throw out something like 6 years, $45 million. Sure we've already got three solid outfielders, but Swisher is only under contract for one more year and there's currently a need for a fourth outfielder. If the Yankees really see something special in Cespedes, they'll net him with a great offer and plan to have him replace Swisher after this season, or even trade Nick Swisher to make room for him if he shows that he's all he's hyped up to be early on (hey, stranger things have happened). Sounds familiar right? Didn't Casey make that suggestion after the season ended about Swisher? Read MAKING NICK SWISHER SWEAT. HE wrote:

"...the Yankees should bring in a young outfield stud to help light a fire under Nick's ass after they pickup his $10.25 million option. Why? Just to give him a little competition as if to say, 'We don’t need you Nick, show us what you got.'"

Anyway, Most likely, the Yanks would overwhelm with a deal well above what the rest are offering and ask him that in exchange he spend one year in AAA. If you watched the video, you know this guy has an ego on par with that of Reggie Jackson, so whether or not he'd be willing to accept a minor league assignment is up in the air.

When asked if the Yankees have any interest, Cashman refused to give a straight answer, saying only “We’ll scout him, we’ll look at him, and we’ll make our own determination. If he’s a free agent, we’ll decide if we’ll make a play on him or not.” This isn't as ambiguous as it seems. When asked if there was any interest in Albert Pujols, Cashman said "No" straight out. No means no, but in Cashman-ese, what does “maybe” mean? Maybe I'm flat out wrong, but it sounds to me like the Yankees have pretty significant interest and could be considered one of the favorites to land Cespedes. That's just how Cashman works, he knows that if he says there's interest it'll drive the price way up on him, so he keeps mum for a while. He's been pretty quick to shut down rumored interest in players he has no actual interest in signing, so this raises a bit of a red flag.

Of course all the hype and praise is worthless without some numbers to back it up. To my knowledge there's no page that organizes his stats into nice, neat charts as are available for MLB players, but his page on BR Bullpen HERE, has all his season totals scattered throughout. In his most recent season, he hit to a .333/.424/.667 line, going yard 33 times and thus breaking the league's single season home run record. He also stole 11 bases in 14 tries over just 90 games.(In Photo: Mason Williams)
The idea makes perfect sense in many aspects, after all the Yankees outfield prospects are fairly weak above the low-A level where Mason Williams has developed into a top prospect, and a plus-speed and power center fielder about to enter his prime years is certainly a player to get excited about. However, in a few other ways, not the least of which is the fact that the current outfield combined for 14.3 wins above replacement in 2011 (including Andruw Jones and Chris Dickerson), it makes absolutely zero sense. Some fans would argue that it's simply a waste of resources that could be better allocated, namely towards bolstering the starting rotation. I see why some would oppose signing Cespedes, but personally I'd totally back the signing. Hank Steinbrenner is probably carrying the $30-45 million needed to sign Luke Skywalker... err... excuse me... Yoennis Cespedes in his back pocket right now. He has the potential to be a Matt Kemp type, but if he turns out to just be a bunch of flash, the Yanks can eat up a bad contract like no other ((see Igawa, Kei).

His impending free agency adds a lot of intrigue to what was looking to be an off season dedicated solely to pitching. We'll keep you up to date on what's quickly turning into one of the hottest topics of the off season.




--Grant Cederquist, BYB Staff Writer



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