Washington Nationals News: Yoenis Cespedes Signs With New York Mets

The Washington Nationals have lost the Yoenis Cespedes sweepstakes as he has decided to go back to the New York Mets

The Washington Nationals were able to sign one former New York Met this winter when they signed second baseman Daniel Murphy to a three-year, $37.5 million deal. However, after trying to go after Yoenis Cespedes, they have lost out on that sweepstakes. As first reported by Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio, the Mets have re-signed Yoenis Cespedes to a three-year deal with a one-year opt out. Here is the latest from Jon Heyman of MLB Network and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and MLB Network:

mets and cespedes have a deal. 3 years guaranteed. opt out after 1.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 23, 2016

So full Cespedes deal with #Mets, per sources: Three years, $75M, full no-trade clause, opt-out after one year. Pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 23, 2016

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Tonight, in his latest column, Rosenthal reported that the Nationals did offer Cespedes a five-year deal worth over $100 million. The deal consisted of deferred money and had a two-year opt-out clause. In the end, while the Nats lost out on another primary free agent target this winter, you never got the sense Cespedes was coming to DC once New York joined the sweepstakes.

In fact, Rosenthal pointed out in his column Thursday night that Cespedes was torn about leaving New York to go to the nation’s capital. Here was the quote from that column that mentioned Cespedes’ possible concerns about joining the Nats:

"“Joining the Nationals also might concern him, given the number of strong personalities in their clubhouse.”"

Cespedes goes to the team that he helped lead to the NL East division title and the NL pennant. Over the final 57 games of the season for the Mets, the 30-year-old outfielder had a slash line of .287/.337/.604 with 17 home runs and 44 RBI’s. He ended up taking the right deal in this case.