Céspedes hyped for success ... just watch
Get ready, Mets fans: Yoenis Céspedes is on his way.
Céspedes posted a 2 1/2-minute hype video on Thursday morning as he prepares to return to the field for the 2020 season.
Captioned "New Beginnings" with a Let's Go Mets hashtag, the black-and-white video shows Céspedes working out, slugging homers in batting practice and throwing on the field with Spring Training soon to begin. As the video goes on, voiceovers of media commentators questioning the likelihood of Céspedes’ comeback give way to others reminding fans of the outfielder’s All-Star talent.
Céspedes hasn't played a Major League game for the Mets since July 20, 2018. He's since been recovering from surgeries to remove calcifications and bone spurs from both heels and ankle fractures suffered during a run-in with a wild boar at his Port St. Lucie, Fla., ranch.
This isn't the first Céspedes hype video to grace fans with its presence.
Back in November 2011, when Céspedes was a 26-year-old free agent on his way from Cuba to the Major Leagues, he released a one-of-a-kind scouting video on YouTube that helped put him on the map.
The video was titled "Yoenis Céspedes The Showcase" and was nearly 20 minutes long. Among the highlights were a Star Wars-style title crawl, slow-mo shots of home runs hit during the World Baseball Classic and in Cuba, a workout montage that includes a 45-inch vertical leap, an ending crawl of Cespedes' Baseball Reference wiki and a smattering of baseball drills.
Céspedes went on to sign with the A's, became an MLB star, arrived in New York in a trade with the Tigers at the 2015 Trade Deadline and led the Mets to the National League pennant that year.