So much has been missing from this New York Mets season -- health, athleticism, consistency and, most important, wins. But there is something else: the star outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, the team's most dynamic hitter.
He is also among the most hobbled, and enigmatic.
As the Mets struggle through another lost season, Cespedes has been away with an injury for most of it.
It is an increasingly sore subject among some within the organization, which had once counted on Cespedes, 32, to be the main cog in the lineup and an attraction for fans. (The long-planned fan giveaway at Citi Field today is a Cespedes shin guard.)
Because of a right hip flexor strain, he has not played in the major leagues since May 13. He was close to returning to the Mets when he suffered a setback June 9 during one of two minor league games he played last month.
Instead, he has been at the Mets' spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla., near where he lives on a ranch in the offseason. He just began a running program Monday after another month of rest and rehabilitation.
Aside from a brilliant second half of the 2015 season, when he propelled the Mets to the National League East title and the World Series, Cespedes' time in Flushing has been largely defined by injury. This is his fourth trip to the disabled list with a leg injury as a Met, leading some to conclude that Cespedes is simply predisposed to these ailments.
Cespedes' heavy weight-lifting regimen and lack of run training, stretching and hydration were blamed for his past leg injuries. He spent the offseason changing his workout plan, even adding yoga, but the results have been the same.
Entering Friday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Mets had played 245 games since the start of the 2017 season, the first year of Cespedes' four-year, $110 million deal. He has played in 118 of those games -- less than half the total -- including 37 this season.
This is the risk of handing nine-figure contracts to players over 30, but it is also the price of doing business with stars.
Still, Cespedes' situation has frustrated people who work for the franchise.
"We paid him a lot of money to go out there and produce, and we don't have him right now," Manager Mickey Callaway said last month.
"When he initially went on the disabled list, it was to knock this completely out so he could come back and be the healthy player he wants to be," Callaway added. "As this continues to move forward, and it continues to drag on, there has to be a level of understanding that it's maybe something you battle throughout the rest of your career."
In late May, Sandy Alderson, the Mets' general manager, expressed a hint of buyer's remorse over Cespedes, saying he was "a little surprised" that his recovery had taken this long. He even suggested that the Mets were now perhaps too cautious with treating injuries.
For most of his two months away, Cespedes has been typically quiet. He last spoke to reporters who cover the Mets on May 6, when the hip injury first emerged. (He blamed not playing enough golf for an early-season slump.)
His closest friends on the team, infielders Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera, have tried to get Cespedes to break out of his shell over the years. Still, he is known as occasionally mercurial and particular about everything, including his rehabilitation. The Mets' new medical staff is cautious, too.
"You never know the level of pain someone is dealing with," said Mets special assistant J.P. Ricciardi. "I don't think we're frustrated. We need him. We have a different lineup with him."
Coupled with other injured or struggling power hitters, such as Jay Bruce, Michael Conforto and Todd Frazier, the Mets' offense has languished. Each season from 2015 to 2017, the Mets ranked in the top 10 in baseball in home runs; this year, they are stuck in the bottom third.
One thing that has not languished is Cespedes' pay. Including this season, he is owed $87.5 million over the final three years of his deal. He also holds a no-trade clause. So for the remainder of his contract, the Mets and Cespedes will need to find a way to ensure that he is available to play, whenever that may be.
Sports on 07/08/2018