Skip to content

Cespedes returned to Mets to 'finish what we started'

Elsa / Getty Images Sport / Getty

NEW YORK - Yoenis Cespedes says he chose happiness over more money.

Of course, the lower offer was a $75 million, three-year contract that kept him with the New York Mets.

''It's not always about the amount of money being offered,'' he said through a translator Wednesday in his first public comments about his Jan. 22 decision. ''It's about wanting to be in a place you want to play in, that you're happy in. And as you can see, this is just what happened in that case.''

Still, he has the right to terminate his contract after one season and $27.5 million, then become a free agent once again.

Acquired from Detroit on July 31, the heavy-hitting Cuban slashed .287/.337/.604 with 17 homers for the Mets, who reached the World Series for the first time since 2000 and then lost to Kansas City in five games.

"For me, as well as my teammates and the whole Mets organization, we really want to finish what we started," Cespedes said. "That really factored in for me."

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

New York, which won the NL East and made the playoffs for the first time since 2006, treated Cespedes as a newly signed player, showing video highlights of his performance last season after he entered the news conference.

Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and general manager Sandy Alderson presented Cespedes with his No. 52 jersey, which fit snugly over his street clothes. The Mets gave him his own hashtag: #GotYoBack.

Since starting his big league career in 2012, the Cuban star played for Oakland, Boston and Detroit before landing with the Mets. Washington was among the clubs that pursued Cespedes this winter.

''There were a couple of teams who were interested and threw out the five-year number,'' he said.

Cespedes was driving in his Florida farm when his agent told him the deal with the Mets had been agreed to.

- With files from theScore

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox