Mets won't know timetable for Yoenis Cespedes return until after opener

NEW YORK -- The Mets don't expect to have an idea until sometime during the season when Yoenis Cespedes will return from surgery on both heels.

The 33-year-old outfielder was limited to 38 games last year. Dr. Robert Anderson operated to remove bone calcification from Cespedes' right heel on Aug. 2 and from the left on Oct. 26.

While watching the team's equipment truck leave for spring training Monday, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said, "I don't think we'll have an idea during spring training."

Cespedes is owed $29 million in 2019 and $29.5 million in 2020, the final two seasons of a $110 million, four-year contract. He hit .262 with nine homers and 29 RBI last year, when he missed two months after a May 13 game at Philadelphia with what the Mets said was a strained right hip flexor. He homered at the New York Yankees in his return July 20, then surprised the Mets after that game by revealing the foot issues.

Van Wagenen, Cespedes' former agent, says the Mets want to make sure "we build him up in a smart fashion, that we're not taxing him too soon. and we want to make sure that he's 100 percent healthy when he comes back, whenever that day is."