With a little over two weeks to go before Opening Day, the Mets have some encouraging news on Yoenis Cespedes' rehab efforts.
On Monday, Cespedes continued his running drills, which included running at full speed to first base, according to Newsday.
He hasn't, however, started cutting or running around the rest of the bases bases at full speed. It's a progression from his last running update in February, when the slugger lifted his planned media silence and revealed he had been running in zigzags at 80% speed.
Cespedes has also been hitting in simulated games and took live at-bats against Marcus Stroman back at Mets spring camp.
The 34-year-old outfielder is attempting to make a comeback after missing the entire 2019 season recovering from double heel surgery (to remove calcification and bone spurs) and then from a fractured ankle (after a reported run in with a wild boar on his ranch).
Cespedes hopes to be ready by Opening Day on March 26. He's been working hard since at least November (when a now-deleted Instagram video of the outfielder taking batting practice surfaced), though he has yet to play in a Grapefruit League game.
After agreeing to a severe pay cut and contract restructuring as a result of his freak ranch accident, Cespedes has a chip on his shoulder. But its yet to be seen whether he'll actually be on that Opening Day roster.
"The money is important ... but a big part of the motivation is the people who have been saying I can't do it," Cespedes said on Feb. 23. "So I'm going out there to prove I can."
