It is hard to say if the deadline trade that sent Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers to the Mets has been better for the player or the team. The Mets have built a commanding division lead while perched atop Cespedes’s broad shoulders, and Cespedes, an outfielder from Cuba, has opened the door for a contract extension well into nine figures.
And now, amazingly, Cespedes’s name has begun to circulate in the debate over who should receive the Most Valuable Player Award in the National League.
The conventional wisdom, a phrase that normally induces cringes from sabermetrically inclined fans, is that the total contribution of a player must be weighed when determining the most valuable player.