Center field, second base in limbo for Mets in 2017

NEW YORK — Yoenis Cespedes is about to become the most interesting man in baseball.

Fresh off a 2016 season in which a banged-up Cespedes was their most valuable offensive player, the Mets will spend this winter trying to figure out the mercurial outfielder’s next move. Cespedes can opt out of the final two years of his three-year, $75-million contract shortly after the World Series, and he is a strong bet to do so.

Then what? Will the Mets re-sign a player who delivered them to the postseason two years in a row? Will they gamble that at age 31, Cespedes’ days as a superstar are just about complete? And if that’s the case, how can the Mets possibly replace his bat in the middle of their lineup?

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All of that will be on general manager Sandy Alderson’s mind once October ends and the offseason begins. With respect to so many other, smaller decisions the Mets must make over the coming months, Cespedes’ future will color their entire winter. The rest of it should look something like this:

Arbitration-eligible: C Travis d’Arnaud, C Rene Rivera, 1B Lucas Duda, IF Wilmer Flores, OF Justin Ruggiano, RHP Jacob deGrom, RHP Jeurys Familia, RHP Jim Henderson, Matt Harvey, RHP Addison Reed, RHP Zack Wheeler, LHP Josh Edgin.

Free agents: OF Alejandro De Aza, IF Kelly Johnson, IF Neil Walker, LHP Jerry Blevins, RHP Bartolo Colon, RHP Fernando Salas.

Options: OF Cespedes (can opt out of contract), LHP Jonathon Niese ($10 million team option with two $500,000 buyouts for 2017 and ’18).

Rotation: In theory, Harvey, deGrom and Steven Matz will all be fully healed from their season-ending surgeries by Spring Training, joining Noah Syndergaard, Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman and Wheeler as starting pitching options in camp. But the Mets know better than to expect everyone to be healthy, particularly considering the uncertainty of Harvey’s thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and Matz’s lengthy injury history. If Colon is as willing to return on a team-friendly deal as he was last winter, the Mets could use his services — even if he winds up pitching exclusively out of the bullpen. But Colon, who wants 11 more wins to pass Juan Marichal’s record 243 by a Dominican-born pitcher, may not be willing to do so at age 43. In-house, Gabriel Ynoa is one of the few rotation depth pieces the Mets still possess.

Bullpen: This was a strength of the Mets in 2016 and should continue to be going forward, assuming Familia and Reed’s …

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