Your inbox approves Men's coaches poll Women's coaches poll Play to win 25K!
MLB
Bob Melvin

Yoenis Cespedes questions A's: 'Don't they want to win a championship?'

Jorge L. Ortiz
USA TODAY
Yoenis Cespedes said he was told the A's are little more than a training ground for players.

OAKLAND – Upon arriving at the O.co Coliseum on Monday morning, Detroit Tigers outfielder Yoenis Cespedes made a point of visiting the Oakland Athletics clubhouse to say hello to manager Bob Melvin and his former teammates.

Whichever he could find.

Only nine players currently on the Oakland roster were with the club last July 31, when Cespedes was shockingly sent to the Boston Red Sox in a swap involving ace left-hander Jon Lester. The A's, a first-place team trying to defend its back-to-back AL West titles at the time, went 22-33 the rest of the way and traded All-Stars Josh Donaldson, Jeff Samardzija, Derek Norris and Brandon Moss for young players in the offseason.

That supported the contention of fellow Cuban Ariel Prieto, who served as Cespedes' interpreter and mentor during his 2½ seasons with the A's.

"Prieto would tell me Oakland is a school where they develop the players, then they let them go,'' Cespedes said in Spanish three hours before getting a warm ovation upon his first at-bat at the Coliseum since the trade. "I was a little surprised to see some of the main figures leave.''

MLB SALARIES: Baseball's top 25 highest-paid players in 2024

Cespedes was reminded that's how the A's operate.

"Then, why operate?'' he said. "Don't they want to win a championship?''

The A's appear farther from that goal than at any time in recent memory. They went into Memorial Day with the majors' worst record at 16-30 and Monday's game against the Tigers gave them a chance to win more than two in a row for the first time since Aug. 7-9, a streak of 90 games. Not only has Oakland been buried in last place in the AL West for more than two weeks, but at one point it trailed by more than 13 games before the end of May for just the second time ever.

Even though other factors are involved, it's hard not to trace a direct line between the A's downturn and the Cespedes trade, considering they've gone 39-63 since. With Cespedes in the lineup beginning in 2012, producing 66 home runs, driving in 229 runs and providing a constant offensive threat, Oakland went 228-135.

Asked what the A's miss most about Cespedes, Melvin opted not to look back.

"I think we have to move on,'' Melvin said. "He's with a new team and we have a new complement of guys. … Baseball's a transient business. Guys move around from time to time. He's just one of the guys who was here and had an impact and he's no longer here.''

Cespedes, who played eight seasons in the Cuban league with his hometown club of Granma, has learned about that transient quality Melvin referred to. In December, the Red Sox traded him to the Tigers as part of the package for right-hander Rick Porcello, a move Cespedes believes was prompted in part by his clashes with first-base coach Arnie Beyeler.

"There were some rumors in Boston, things that were said about me that I said were not true, so I knew they were going to trade me,'' Cespedes said. "The first-base coach treated me like I was a rookie when I got there, wanted me to do things a rookie would do, and I told him I wasn't going to, so he started talking.''

Cespedes, 29, is due to become a free agent after the season, and probably a coveted one based on his resume – including back-to-back Home Run Derby titles he intends to defend – and his rare combination of power and speed.

So he could be changing addresses again in the offseason, but for now Cespedes is enjoying a solid season – batting .286 with five homers, 24 RBI and a .790 OPS – while benefiting from hitting in the same lineup as two-time AL MVP Miguel Cabrera.

Whereas in Oakland the opponents zeroed in on Cespedes as the player they didn't want to beat them, in Detroit that distinction belongs to Cabrera, who takes pressure off his teammates. He's awfully hard to emulate, though.

"I watch him a lot when he hits and I to try to learn from him, but we're very different ballplayers,'' Cespedes said. "He's supernatural. He can do all these things without even trying. If I try to do some of the things he does, I'd just get into trouble.''

The presence of Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Jose Iglesias and several other Latin players has made it easier for Cespedes – whose English remains a work in progress – to fit in with his third club in less than a year.

Fellow outfielder J.D. Martinez, born in Miami to parents who emigrated from Cuba as kids, said Cespedes' stories about life in the island make him appreciate growing up in the United States. He also appreciates witnessing first-hand a major talent like Cespedes, whose No. 52 jersey could be easily spotted among the crowd of 25,380 at the Coliseum on Monday.

"He's always a threat at the plate,'' J.D. Martinez said. "He's fast, has a great arm, a lot of stuff everybody already knows, but it's cool seeing it on a day-to-day basis.''

A's fans only wish they could still say that.

GALLERY: Cuban stars hitting it big in MLB

Featured Weekly Ad