As Yoenis Cespedes continues to prepare for the 2020 season after recently agreeing to an amended contract, he is confident in being able to not only return, but make an impact.
"I've spoken to Yoenis and he's hungry," Eduardo Perez said Thursday on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM.
"Just imagine if you do add a Yoenis Cespedes," Perez said. "A guy that verbally told me, he said 'I'm ready, I'm gonna go out with a bang this year. I'm not just gonna hit 40 home runs.'"
When Perez told Cespedes that hitting that many home runs would mean playing 140-plus games, Cespedes replied by saying he'll be out there for 140-plus games.
"Verbally he told me he could hit 52 (home runs)," Perez said.
In the week since Cespedes agreed to have his contract amended -- which potentially means making as little as $9.5 million in 2020 -- teams have inquired with the Mets about his availability, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
If Cespedes is on the Mets in 2020, it's hard to see where he'll fit in. And it's also fair to wonder if he can physically handle playing the outfield.
If the Mets trade Cespedes to an American League team that plans to use him as a DH, that team could just throw Cespedes out there and hope he comes close to doing what he did in 2017 and 2018, when he was dealing with lower body issues while struggling to play the outfield.
In 119 games spanning 2017 and 2018, Cespedes hit .282/.343/.525 with 26 homers and 23 doubles.