Mets injury update: Yoenis Cespedes has hamstring strain, won’t play again this season

It’s not unexpected news, but it’s still disappointing that the Mets announced this evening that Yoenis Cespedes has a hamstring strain that’s projected to takes six weeks to recover. And with that, the team says, he will officially not play again this season.

In his second full season with the Mets after coming over at the trade deadline in 2015, tearing the cover off the ball, and re-signing with the team in back-to-back offseasons, Cespedes was pretty much the same hitter this year as he was over the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Leg injuries derailed his season in terms of playing time and probably contributed to his pre-All-Star-break struggles, but he still hit 17 home runs in 321 plate appearances with a .292/.352/.540 line and a 130 wRC+. Those numbers were in line with his very good production at the plate since he became a Met.

Cespedes joins a far-too-long list of Mets players who have seen their seasons come to a premature end. He and Michael Conforto are the latest pair, and while other outfielders like Brandon Nimmo will get plenty of opportunity the rest of the way, watching the team won’t be the same without those two corner outfielders.