NEW YORK -- Yoenis Cespedes' seasons-long inability to keep his legs healthy surfaced again this weekend, when he left a rehab game early Saturday due to tightness in his right quadriceps. The Mets planned to reevaluate Cespedes on Sunday.
Sidelined since May 14 due to a strained right hip flexor, which he initially referred to as a quad injury, Cespedes began a Minor League assignment Friday for Double-A Binghamton. Going 0-for-2 as a designated hitter, Cespedes -- in his first public comments in more than a month -- said he hoped to rejoin the Mets as soon as Tuesday in Atlanta.
First, however, the Mets wanted to see him play left field. Cespedes did so Saturday, going 2-for-2 with two doubles, but he departed after just 2 1/2 innings due to quad tightness.
Prior to landing on the disabled list, Cespedes was hitting .255 with eight home runs in 37 games. He focused his offseason workouts on trying to eliminate the quad and hamstring injuries that cost him significant time in 2016 and '17, but is now all but certain to miss at least a month. Cespedes last played in a big league game May 13.
Earlier Saturday, Mets manager Mickey Callaway said he did not expect Cespedes to need a long rehabilitation assignment. All the Mets wanted to see, Callaway added, was that Cespedes come out of it healthy.
"Just need to make sure he can go out there and run the ball down in the gap, put a good swing on the ball and run the ball out to first," Callaway said. "We need him back for the rest of the year, not just for the next week. So we need to make sure he's in a good spot."