Cespedes happy with Mets despite A's comments: New York 'is my home'

Prior to Friday's game, Yoenis Cespedes made comments about wishing to end his career as a member of the Oakland Athletics. And, immediately following the game, the New York Mets slugger was asked to explain himself.

"It would be nice if somehow, at the end of my career - that very last year - I got to play in Oakland, because that was the team that I started with," Cespedes explained to reporters through a translator.

The 31-year-old slugger spent his first two and a half years with Oakland after being signed as an international free agent out of Cuba.

Cespedes inked a four-year deal worth $110 million with the Mets this past offseason and then told reporters that "God willing, I will finish my career with this team." Cespedes reiterated that sentiment following Friday's game:

"Like I said when I first got here, this is my home, this is my team, the way everyone greeted me here, the fans. Nothing has changed that, this is my home."

"With respect to the comments I made about their manager (Bob Melvin), that he's a great manager, that does not mean take away from my relationship with Terry, that does not mean that I do not have a good relationship with Terry; that we don't get along well, that I don't respect him."

Prior to the game, Cespedes told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that Bob Melvin has been "the best manager" so far in his six-year career. "I don't think there's a better manager than Melvin," Cespedes explained.

The third-place Mets are floundering six games below .500 and 13 games back of the first-place Washington Nationals.