Yoenis Cespedes: Oakland A's Newest Star Should Begin Season in Minors

The Oakland A's shocked the baseball world on Monday by agreeing to a contract with Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes that will pay him $36 million over four years. Considering all the money that he is going to make, there will be a lot of pressure on the team to start him right away. 

Unfortunately for the fans that are anxious to watch him play, that should not be the way that the A's handle Cespedes. 

As of right now, we don't know how the team plans to handle him coming into spring training because his contract can't be finalized until he takes a physical. He can't do that until he obtains a visa, which could take another week. 

Cespedes is a freakish athlete. We have all seen the workout videos and highlight reel of his work in Cuba and the World Baseball Classic, but you have to keep all of that in context. He was going up against lower-level pitching.

We have no idea what he is going to do against elite competition over the course of 162 games, because we have never seen it. At best, the pitching in Cuban leagues is equal to what you will see in the lower levels of the minors. 

He is going to have to deal with pitchers throwing harder, sharper breaking balls and him trying to make adjustments on the fly. He can't do all that in the big leagues right away.

His defense is big-league ready right now. He has speed, can cover an insane amount of ground in center field and has a right fielder's arm. But if the A's want him to reach his full potential, they have to give him time to work on his hitting. 

His bat speed is incredible and he has enough raw power to hit a lot of home runs. That is also part of his problem; because he tries to crush everything, he won't make enough contact to hit for average or draw enough walks to be an everyday player. 

Despite being Oakland's highest-paid player, Cespedes needs time in the minors to adjust to the speed of the game. He has to get used to higher quality pitching than he has seen so far in his career. 

We have seen so many players with great talent get pushed too quickly because they felt pressure from the fanbase or the amount of money that he is being paid. Just because Cespedes is making the most money of anyone on the team doesn't mean he can step on the field right now and be an All-Star. 

General manager Billy Beane would be doing Cespedes a tremendous service by letting him spend a couple of months in Double-A and Triple-A before taking over the center field job for the A's around the All-Star break. 

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