Mets remain in contact with Yoenis Cespedes

According to Roch Kubatko of MASN, the Baltimore Orioles have made an offer to free agent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes while the club continues its search for outfield depth.

While the Orioles await a decision from Chris Davis they have been active trying to pursue other options.

Taking the hypothetical $110 million Davis would earn over the next five years, the Orioles could have signed left-handed outfielder Alex Gordon at his $18 million a year price tag and extended a long term offer to starter J.A. Happ or possibly Doug Fister on a comeback contract.

After seeing all those factors it is no surprise that Cespedes is asking for a long term deal. I’ve been pretty outspoken against giving Davis the six or seven season deal that he’s reportedly seeking, but I think before Spring Training he’ll end up agreeing to a deal in that range. As Ken Rosenthal speculated, teams dishing out long-term contracts in late January or early February isn’t unheard of.

Upton’s name has popped up in the rumor mill sporadically this winter, and it’s safe to assume that those with interest in Cespedes would also look at Upton.

Of the teams who have been linked to Cespedes (with the Royals and Giants now out of that market), the Rangers reportedly will only go as high as one year and the White Sox only as high as three.

Another high ranking baseball official, and with a team not in the Cespedes hunt, was also able to confirm that the Mets may be close to re-signing Cespedes to a one or two-year deal with the Braves and two other teams in the discussion.

Cespedes, 30, was an All-Star in 2014 and carries a career.

At this point it does not seem like a reunion between Cespedes and the Mets are in the works, but the door is not yet closed. Cespedes made $10.5 million in each of the last two seasons, but is hoping to make double that on average for at least four seasons on his next deal.