NEW YORK _ Yoenis Cespedes fractured his right ankle by stepping into a hole on his Florida ranch last May after an encounter with a wild boar, according to a report.
The New York Post, citing "multiple people who were informed of the incident," reported the boar was removed from a trap on Cespedes' property in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and either charged at or startled the Mets slugger, causing him to step in a hole and suffer multiple fractures to his ankle.
The Post reported that Cespedes has traps on his property "for a variety of reasons, including to keep boars away from people," and that it may have been Cespedes himself who released the boar from the trap.
General manager Brodie Van Wagenen said at the time that Cespedes "was on his ranch and he had a violent fall in which he stepped in a hole and twisted, put his leg and foot in a difficult position." Van Wagenen did not reveal what caused the fall.
According to the Post, Cespedes reported the injury to the Mets and immediately told them that he was trying to avoid the boar. The Post reported that the Mets and Cespedes' representatives went to the ranch the next day to investigate and concluded that his account of the incident was believable.
The Post reported that the commissioner's office and players association also visited Cespedes' ranch and confirmed the version of the accident that he reported to the Mets.
At the time of the accident, Cespedes was recovering from double heel surgery that was expected to cost him part of the 2019 season. The ankle injury on his ranch ended up costing him the entire season.
The Associated Press reported last month that Cespedes' base salary for the 2020 season will be cut to $6 million from the original $29.5 million in his deal as part of an amended contract agreed to by the Mets and Cespedes.
The agreement avoided a grievance hearing because the Mets took issue with Cespedes suffering a non-baseball injury. His salary for 2020 reportedly will rise to $11 million if he has one active day on the major league roster and will escalate to $20 million if he has 650 plate appearances.
MLB analyst Eduardo Perez told MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM last month that he has spoken to Cespedes and that he is "hungry" for the upcoming season. Cespedes told Perez that he will play "140-plus games" and "could hit 52" in 2020.
