In 14 games with the Astros, Carlos Gomez has a .196/.224/.286 line. Meanwhile, Yoenis Cespedes is chugging along with a .306 AVG and an .801 OPS. Perhaps it’s silly to declare victory after two weeks but you will be hard pressed to find a Mets fan pining for Gomez these days. In fact, most seem to be scheming to find ways to sign Cespedes to a long-term contract.

The odds are stacked against that, though. Sandy Alderson is on record as being against giving out $100 million deals and the Wilpons aren’t going to do anything to change his mind in that regard. But let’s pretend for a minute that scenario doesn’t exist, or at least that Alderson has an open mind on the subject. Could the Mets fit Cespedes in their budget for 2016 and beyond and does it make sense to do it?

After this season the following players and salaries will no longer be on the books:

$11 million – Bartolo Colon

$8 million – Daniel Murphy

$5.3 million – Dillon Gee

$3.7 million – Bobby Parnell

$2.595 million – Jenrry Mejia

$2.4 million – Jerry Blevins

1.45 million – John Mayberry

0.725 million – Buddy Carlyle

That’s $35.17 million from the Opening Day roster that’s potentially available. And that doesn’t take into account the extra money being paid now to Tyler Clippard, Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe and Cespedes himself that could be allocated towards re-signing their big mid-season acquisition. Of course, some of that money has to go to raises to others on the team. And they might want to bring in a reliever to replace Clippard, too. But it seems obvious that the money is available, at least for 2016.

Only Michael Cuddyer’s $12.5 million comes off the books the following season and the raises aren’t going to get any cheaper. The year after that is Curtis Granderson and his $15 million. So it certainly would be more difficult to afford his salary after the first year of his deal. The hope is that the Mets make the playoffs and develop the ability to allocate more towards payroll. It’s good to have hope; sometimes that’s all you’ve got.

The best bet might be for Cespedes to take a front-loaded three-year deal. That way the Mets aren’t on the hook for $20 million a year forever like they are with David Wright. And Cespedes is still young enough to get another good size free agent contract. Granderson, coming off an injury, got 4/$60 for his age 33-36 seasons. It’s reasonable to expect Cespedes to command more than that for the same age seasons.

But how do the Mets play things if they do retain Cespedes? We know Granderson will start in one corner. We think Michael Conforto is ready to start in the other. Will the Mets be willing to put both Cuddyer and Juan Lagares, who they signed last year to a multi-year deal, on the bench? If not, would you be willing to have $20 million-plus keeping Conforto in the minors?

In tiny samples with the Mets, Cespedes has an .801 OPS this year and Conforto sits with a .771 mark. The rookie has not looked out of place at all in the majors and has been considered a long-term starter in Queens since the day he was drafted. No one thought that day would be 2016, however. But things change and Conforto has a month and a half – and maybe more – to convince the front office that his time is now.

The one thing yet to be discussed is if Cespedes is worth a monster contract. Currently, he has 2,249 PA in the majors under his belt and he holds a .790 lifetime OPS. Those are very nice numbers and no doubt some team will believe he’s worth a nine-figure deal. Those are excellent numbers for a center fielder. But they’re considerably less so for a corner outfielder. The average RF in the National League has a .778 OPS. And the average right fielder is not pulling down $20 million or more.

Cespedes needs to play center for those numbers to make sense on a team watching its pennies. And with the Mets already committing to Lagares in that position, it seems to make the long shot of re-signing Cespedes into even more of an unlikely proposition. Unless the Mets are willing to trade Lagares. Alderson has really surprised us with his activity at the trade deadline. But can you imagine him making a free agent signing that would then force him to turn around and make another deal for the signing to make sense? That doesn’t sound like the modus operandi of a “semi-active GM” to me.

It seems we should treat Cespedes as the rental he was said to be when he was acquired. He’s a fun guy to watch and memories of that off-balance, one-hop throw to third base will last awhile. Hopefully he provides us with many more of those the remainder of the 2015 season.

Alderson stepped to the plate and paid a heavy price for the Cespedes rental. Luis Cessa has had a tough go of it in two starts for the Tigers in Double-A. But Michael Fulmer has been outstanding in his two appearances for Double-A Erie, having not allowed a run over 12.2 IP, while racking up 11 strikeouts.

In 17 starts in Double-A this year, Fulmer is 8-2 with a 1.64 ERA and a 1.074 WHIP. For a comparison, Steven Matz, at a year older, posted a 2.28 ERA and a 1.127 WHIP at the same level. Fulmer seems well on his way towards being a potentially fine MLB pitcher and no doubt the Tigers will look back fondly on this deal in the years to come.

The Mets find themselves in the same position as the Giants did back in 2011 when they traded Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran. The Giants rolled the dice and it came up craps, as they did not make the playoffs and Beltran left as a free agent with no compensation. It will be easier to handle the loss of Fulmer if Cespedes helps lead the Mets to the playoffs.

Personally, my belief is that the Mets overpaid for Cespedes and that two months of him was not worth Fulmer. But at the same time, it was nice to see Alderson not being worried about winning the deal. His focus was on the playoffs and it’s fun to be discussing the playoffs rather than some mythical point in the future.

To me, it was a much, much bigger mistake signing Cuddyer and forfeiting a first-round pick than it was trading Fulmer for a rental. The latter is a cost of doing business; the former was the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot. At least for the remainder of the season, Cespedes means we’ll see less Cuddyer and that’s worth something, too.

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