So I am a little confused by everything I’m reading from all the Mets beat writers and reporters. Well I guess it’s not that confusing because we know they all work directly or indirectly for the Wilpons. Nevertheless I do think it is important to set the record straight. The consensus in the media seems to be that the most important takeaway of the Cespedes signing is that Met fans can now see that ownership has had their best interests in mind all along. We can finally put all those “false rumors” about the Wilpons financial situation and tendency to meddle in baseball affairs to bed. The media continues to praise ownership for “playing this perfectly”.

Ummmm what the hell is everyone talking about? Are we just going to completely ignore that the following unprecedented conversation took place:

Roc Nation agent: So Yoenis just to be clear. The Nationals are offering you 5 years and 110 million dollars. You are coming off of a career year and this offer reflects your exact market value. And you don’t want to take the offer? You would prefer to take 35 million less?

Cespedes: Yes. I want to stay with the Mets.

Roc Nation: Ok draw up the paperwork.

How can we see this any other way? That exchange has never happened before. In the far more common alternate reality, Cespedes heads to Washingon and we are berating the Wilpons yet again for refusing to pay players what they are worth and refusing to field the best team possible. Even if Cespedes matches his career best numbers from last season in 2016, he isn’t likely to get much more than a 5 year deal at 22 million a season. That’s as good as it gets.

So I’m happy the Wilpons agreed to the 75 million dollar deal. I’m happy the cries of the fan base to bring back Cespedes were finally heard. But let’s not pretend the Wilpons did something special to make this happen. It fell into their damn lap.  Cespedes’ unprecedented decision to take less money and ignore job security is clearly the main reason he’s playing for the team next season. And of course the Wilpon’s willingness to retain the best hitter on the team at a discount. Right. That too. Thanks for that.