Wild boar cause of Cespedes¡¯ ankle fractures
What caused the "violent fall" that left Yoenis Céspedes with multiple right ankle fractures at his ranch last year, costing him all of the 2019 season and a big chunk of his ¡®20 salary?
A run-in with a wild boar, MLB.com confirmed. The story was reported by the New York Post on Friday.
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Per the Post, the Mets outfielder was injured when a boar was removed from a trap at his ranch in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and "either charged toward C¨¦spedes or startled him," leading to him stepping into a hole and fracturing his ankle.
The team hasn't commented on the report.
C¨¦spedes immediately informed the Mets of the injury and how it happened, according to the Post. Mets officials and C¨¦spedes' representatives, who visited the ranch the next day, and MLB Commissioner's Office and Players Association officials, who visited at a later date, agreed on C¨¦spedes' version of the events -- that he was avoiding a wild boar.
At the time he fractured his ankle, C¨¦spedes was already recovering from surgeries to remove calcifications and bone spurs in both heels, which had sidelined him since July 20, 2018, the last time he took the field for the Mets.
At the time, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen didn't comment on exactly how C¨¦spedes had fractured his ankle, beyond saying it was a violent fall and C¨¦spedes had twisted his ankle in the hole.
The incident led the Mets to restructure C¨¦spedes' contract for the 2020 season. Instead of the original $29.5 million he was slated to make in the final year of his four-year, $110 million deal with New York, he's only guaranteed $6 million, which would increase to $11 million if he makes the Opening Day roster or a prorated version of that amount if he makes it back to the Major League club later in the season.