Yoenis Cespedes Believes Golf Will Help Fix Swing After Early Slump

New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes said Friday he's "considering" a return to golf to help him break out of an early-season slump.

Cespedes is carrying a .208 batting average with 34 strikeouts through 19 games. The slugger said following the Mets' 5-3 road victory over the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park he could seek to end his "mutual agreement" with the organization to stop hitting the links.

"One of the things that I did before, years ago, when I was in a slump, was playing golf and trying to get out of my slump," Cespedes told reporters through an interpreter. "I said this season I wouldn't go to play golf. So one of the things that I'm doing now, that I didn't do before, is watching the videos. That's something different I'm doing right now. But unfortunately, it's not going too well so far."

The 32-year-old Cuba native's love for golf previously drew the ire of Mets fans when he suffered a recurrence of a quad injury in August 2016 after teeing it up earlier in the day. He was also injured during the 2015 playoffs after a pregame golf outing.

In February, David Lennon of Newsday reported Cespedes informed the team he was willing to quit golf in an effort to stay healthy.

Now he may be looking to backtrack on that idea after striking out four times in Game 2 of the current series against the NL East-rival Braves.

"I'm still lost," Cespedes told reporters Friday. "... Now I'm opening my shoulder wide open. When I was playing golf, I had to keep my hands inside. It helped me a lot."

Cespedes posted a career-best .892 OPS last year, but injuries limited him to 81 games. While he's played in all 19 contests so far this season, his OPS has dropped to .650.

The sample size is too small to draw any definitive conclusions, and the Mets' 14-5 start has mostly offset his struggles. But they'll need him to hit if they want to compete for a playoff berth, which could mean letting him play golf to see if it helps his swing.