Miami Marlins

Cespedes' feats of strength for the Mets in 2016

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:12 p.m. ET

Fansided, JT. Teran/FanSided via Rising Apple

Happy Festivus! As Mets fans we are living through a very fortunate time right now. We have a Cespedes for the rest of us for a few more years, and as part of the yearly tradition, we have to celebrate Yoenis’ greatest feats of strength from this past season.

Now, there were a ton of great moments to choose from, so apologies if your favorite one didn’t make the cut this time.

We start off with one of my favorite games and innings this whole season:

April 29, 2016 – Grand Slam vs Giants

How do you cap off an all-time great inning? With a Cespedes’ grand slam, of course. Yo’s bases loaded blast put the finishing touches on a record-setting 12-run 3rd inning for the Mets versus San Francisco. Citi Field erupted that Friday night in April as fans on hand got to witness a game for the history books.

The Mets sent 15 men to the plate during that 45-minute inning where it felt like everyone pretty much hit double after double. Everyone except Yoenis, that is.

June 30th, 2016 – Third deck bomb vs Cubs

What ended up being Yoenis Cespedes’ longest and hardest-hit home run of the season came against the Cubs at Citi Field on June 30th. It was projected to be a 441 foot bomb, which was easily the Mets longest home run of the year up until that point as well.

You can tell Yo absolutely crushed this ball because none of the Cub outfielders move when they see where it’s headed.

Oh yeah, and the Mets came back to win this one 4-3, by the way.

July 18, 2016 – Yoenis throws out Contreras at home plate

Yoenis’ skills go beyond just hitting the ball really hard, and really far. He’s also got a cannon of an arm, and he showed it off in Chicago by throwing out Cubs catcher Wilson Contreras trying to score on a single from second base.

Oh, silly Wilson. This is one instance where maybe you should ignore your third base coach and just slam on the brakes. There’s always next time. This wasn’t the only time Yo threw out runners on the base paths, but this particular play was so nice to watch, that it had to be the one picked.

August 29, 2016 – Walk-off home run vs Marlins

One of the most memorable home runs for Yoenis came versus the Marlins at the end of August. He’ll always be the Mets best chance to end the game late, and that night, he delivered in the bottom of the 10th.

At the time, the Wild Card race was still wide open. These pesky Marlins were even thought of as being potential contenders of the playoff spot, but this series in Queens made sure the Fish knew who they were dealing with.

September 27th, 2016 – Cespedes hits the Marlins sculpture

Cespedes’ feats of strength weren’t contained to Citi Field by any stretch. In the middle of an incredibly emotional series and a push for a NL Wild Card spot, Yoenis contributed some much needed offense to the club in Miami.

This epic blast would clear the Marlins center field sculpture-thing, and be projected at 432 feet. I’ve watched this home run five times while writing this article. It’s that great.

These are just some of the greatness that Cespedes showed off last season. I’m confident next year’s Festivus will have an equally, if not more, impressive feats of strength list. Until then, Happy Cespedes for the rest of us!