Yoenis Cespedes Needs To Stop Playing Golf

Fox Sports – The Mets finally placed slugger Yoenis Cespedes on the disabled list after he further aggravated his right quad strain in Wednesday’s 9-5 loss to the Yankees. But it’s Mets fans who are aggravated. In addition to playing through the injury, which he suffered July 8, Cespedes has continued to golf. In fact, he hit the links Wednesday morning with former major leaguer Kevin Millar. Perhaps the quad injury isn’t a factor when Cespedes golfs, but many frustrated Mets fans would prefer that he spends his mornings and afternoons resting and getting treatment. The team’s website notes that Cespedes has played in only 14 of the Mets’ 21 games since he suffered the injury, and he is hitting .227 with just one homer in that span. Meanwhile, New York is 7-14 in those games and hasn’t won consecutive games since July 6-7.

Alright heres the deal – there’s every possibility that Cespedes can go out there and golf without aggravating his quad. But this is not the same over reaction fans often have regarding athletes and their personal lives. Fans often expect athletes to do nothing but perform and train. If you’re injured, you should never leave the gym. Never leave the doctor’s office. You’re seen at a restaurant or at a sporting event, you’re not committed and you’re stealing and blah blah blah. Thats ridiculous. Everyone is entitled to live a somewhat normal life.

This is not the same thing. I’m not saying Yo is playing pickup basketball or tackle football with his buddies, but the bottom line is golf is still a physical activity. There’s still swinging and twisting and torquing. There’s still the possibility to worsen any existing injuries. And for a guy who’s been banged up all year playing another relatively passive sport, lets not act like he’s immune to the possibility of making things worse on the golf course.

So thats the first thing. If you’re too injured to play baseball you’re not exactly an iron man that can 100% guarantee me that you wont be injured playing golf. But the second thing is the larger point. The Mets are in a free fall, they’ve completely mishandled the Cespedes injury, the media and other fans are salivating at the idea of making fun of this team for under performance and total incompetence. Do your manager, general manager, and teammates a solid and dont play golf for a couple fucking weeks, dude. If you’re out there and performing, do whatever you want. But if you’re not even able to take the field, you dont take the course. Because all it does it create media headlines, uncomfortable questions for your teammates during interviews, and another bullseye on the back of the Mets to be the butt of every joke. You’re making $27.5 million, if you cant actually earn that paycheck on the field at the moment, you have an obligation to do whatever else you can to make things as easy as possible for your team. Whether its reasonable or justified or not – a media shitstorm about you not being as committed to this team and your health as you should be is absolutely a distraction and a negative for the Mets. All so you can have fun with your hobby. Just stop dude. Take a month having fun some other way. Stop fucking golfing.