May 8: As expected, Cano has now been released, per Tim Healey of Newsday.
May 2: The Mets designated second baseman Robinson Cano for assignment, according to an announcement from the team. The club also optioned Yoan Lopez to Triple-A to get down to 26 players on the active roster.
The Mets owe Cano about $37.6MM through 2023, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Mets have set Cano’s eventual release in motion, so they’ll be eating the money owed to him.
Cano, 39, kicked off his career with nine seasons for the Yankees that included five All-Star appearances and MVP votes in six campaigns. In a deal brokered by agent Brodie Van Wagenen with involvement from newly-certified agent Jay-Z, Cano left the Yankees for a landmark ten-year, $240MM free agent contract with the Mariners. After a strong start to his Seattle career, things started going south for Cano in May of 2018 with an 80-game PED suspension.
Months later, Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, who hadn’t been in the organization when Cano was signed, set to work trading him. In December 2018, Dipoto sent Cano, reliever Edwin Diaz, and $20MM to the Mets for outfielder Jay Bruce, right-hander Anthony Swarzak, right-hander Gerson Bautista and prospects Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. At the time, the Mets’ new GM was none other than Van Wagenen. The trade, which was more about Diaz than Cano for the Mets, came at the high cost of Kelenic, who went on to become one of the game’s top prospects. For more on this disastrous trade, check out Jeff Todd’s superb YouTube video.
Though Cano was able to muster up a strong but brief 2020 season for the Mets, the hits kept coming with a 162-game PED suspension in November 2020 – not long after Steve Cohen bought the team and fired Van Wagenen. With Cohen, Mets president Sandy Alderson, GM Billy Eppler, and manager Buck Showalter having no connection to the Cano deal, the clock was ticking if he didn’t produce this year after returning from his second suspension.
With a .195/.233/.268 line in 43 plate appearances, Cano struggled in his first big league action in more than 18 months. As Tim Healey of Newsday and other Mets reporters have noted, even with Dominic Smith, J.D. Davis, and Luis Guillorme having minor league options, the correct baseball decision was to move on from Cano. At 16-7, the Mets own the best record in the National League and chose not to let Cano’s contract dictate their roster. Cano, who will eventually be released, will have the rest of his contract paid by the Mets less the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum if he hooks on elsewhere.
Cano indeed plans to continue searching for opportunities. Van Wagenen, who has again assumed a role in Cano’s representation upon joining Roc Nation Sports after being fired by the Mets, tells Sherman the 39-year-old “absolutely still wants to play. Given the right situation, he can still make a meaningful contribution for a team.”
It remains to be seen whether there’ll be a ton of interest in Cano’s services. In addition to the lost 2021 season and rough bottom-line numbers this year, he’s seen his contact rate plummet to a career-worst 73% in this season’s early going. He has chased nearly half the pitches he’s been thrown outside the strike zone, and he’s probably limited defensively to a rotation between second base, first base and designated hitter. It’s not the easiest profile for a team to roster unless they’re confident Cano can match or improve upon the .275/.321/.463 line he managed between 2019-20 as he gets further from his second suspension.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Woah.
Woah.
Woah.
Woah.
Woah.
Woah.
Whoa.
Woah
Waoh.
Woah.
Buh bye
No, woah.
Woha
Haow
Whoah.
I believe Cano will be playing for the super team / Dodgers very soon after he becomes a free agent.
Why? It’s not like the Dodgers need more depth up the middle. Muncy, Lux, & CT3 all play a solid 2B.
Unless he’s fine playing in OKC for awhile, I don’t see it happening.
Maybe you’re being facetious.
I think it will be ChiSox.
No chance. He has nothing left anymore. Sox will be bringing up Yolber Samchez sooner rather than later. No reason to block him
Woah your boat, gently down the stweam
Whoa.*
Woe
Hoe
About time!!!
Christmas has come EARLY for ME!
I might have to change my screen NAME.
Enough said right. 🙂
Either somebody has been watching Blossom reruns or Joey Lawrence found out how to comment on MLB trade rumors
Whatever, odd as hell.
Why is it odd? Seems like an obvious move to me.
Woah
Huh?
I’ve been reading all the Whoa in an AL Pacino voice. Who-ah!
I’ve had Ted Theodore Logan & Bill S. Preston Esq. in my head.
Me to tidy
@quonset Careful, or no soup for you
Woh
bruh
Woe is me…..er, I mean him.
I can hear the riders but I don’t see the stable.
Haow
eoJ syas…………
Tahw?
Keanu
It’s pronounced Canoas
Remember when there were people on here suggesting the Mets won the trade and it’s good to see teams going for it to try and win? Anytime a team gets rid of a 100 mil plus in payroll commitments they win the trade regardless. If they get back a top 15 prospects they crushed the trade regardless if kelenic plays another game in mlb after today.
Mariners win just by getting rid of that contract.
I agree if the wilpons still owned the Mets and that contract was prohibitive and made the Mets worse. This is not the case. Kelenic would not elevate the Mets more than diaz could as the closer. If the Mets win a chip with Diaz, it’s a win for the Mets. Period. The mariners can’t lose this trade, on the other hand. Only the Mets can. But right now it’s not a sure thing there is a loser in this deal at all
The Mariners could’ve used Diaz to bring in a much better package than:
1 – salary relief for Cano
2 – 2 fringe prospects
The Cubs and St. Eptstein traded Gleyber Torres for 12 weeks of Aroldis Chapman
Diaz was coming off a much better year and had MORE control. And Torres was a far higher ranked player
And Torres even at his WORST looks better than Kelenic
The real trade the Mariners stole from was getting Crawford for Segura.
Its crazy how no one talks about that.
Noah Lowry.
Cheating pays. Banked over 200 million.
Gen z tries to ruin everything. Comments will eventually be turned off
This is the end….
Beautiful friend. The end.
My only friend, the end.
Fat Brando says hi
So limitless and free
Finally
CaNOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
If Cano is willing to sign a minor league deal to continue playing, I could easily see Cashman re-signing him. He fits the profile of a Yankees hitter to a ‘T’.
Yes but if all is healthy where would he play.
I would sign him, have a happy reunion, and let him call it a day. I loved Cano, but he let Jay-Z push him to the west coast when he would’ve been the face of Yankees baseball.
Good riddance…
How do I change my screen-name? Happy Days are here again! 🙂
Say hi to Potsy and Malph, Ralph.
Poor @Canosucks. He’s back now that the Mets are off to a good start and they have now booted the player he hates. He’s here a lot, so I know that means, according to him, he currently doesn’t have a life. Poor guy.
A lot of that “not having a life” thing going on here, eh?
His words…not mine.
Marlins: Your guys looking pretty good in the early going. Lopez is just phenomenal right now. Quite literally been un-hittable. Soler absolutely crushed that ball to LC a few games ago…
Then Pablo gave up 4 runs to a team with 8 of their 9 guys batting under or slightly above .200. Soler hit that HR but hasn’t done anything. With that win streak you think Sandy and Pablo going meant it would continue and we lost both games. Right now the main story is Soler and Garcia doing nothing. Aguilar has woken up as his stats his last 15 games are quite good. Otherwise it’s been Jazz and Wendle hitting. JSanchez slowed down but still comes through. unless Soler and Garcia get going a bit it’s going to be a rough season. Meanwhile Berti and De La Cruz are playing good ball but bench riding. So I predict Mattingly messes this nice start up somehow.
Max Meyer needs to take Hernandez’s spot in the rotation now.
big effing cheater…
That’s one way to cut the roster down.
If only Ricketts would allow the same, with JHey.
Jason Heyward is younger, has more value on the field (especially defensively) and a whole lot more value in the clubhouse, in the community and likely in a future front office role. JHey is a class individual with zero baggage like Cano has brought upon himself.
That and a $160 million gets you a donut.
What kind of donut is worth 160 mil lol
A swing with a hole in it
lol
JHey at least provides value with his glove.
But J=Hey is the greatest motivational speaker in the history of motivational speakers. He got paid all of his money for motivating the Cubs into winning the World Series. That’s what the Cubs are paying for.
JHey has positive value as a CF.
Wow!
Thank goodness the Mariners were able to get rid of that contract. Fortunately the Mets are also moving on and doing really well. Hoping Kelenic eventually figures things out.
The only reason the trade went down is because Brodie Van Wagen had zero sense of fiduciary responsibility as the Mets GM and rather let Cano cash in a favor as his former agent.
In all likelihood, Mets ownership, Wilpon, likely pushed the “win-now” trade because he wanted to win in 2019 and if not he planned to sell the team — which is what he did. Mets wanted an impact closer and they got an elite 2018 closer. Also, Wilpon favored paying money to players with prior NYC experience – like Granderson. Cano was a well-respected clubhouse presence as well and a mentor to possible future star Rosario. When you look at all the pieces you can see why Mets made the deal. And don’t forget BVW was being mentored by Omar Minaya.
Everything was fine with the trade, but the 100M. If The Mets got the M’s to eat 50M over the 20M the trade looked much better.
The Mariners ate 20M AND took on 36M of DEAD SALARY.
Mariners really took on 56M in that trade.
But Met fans literally love to pretend that Bruce/Schwarzak’s 36M either didnt exist or didnt matter.
Look at the trade like
Diaz for Kelenic/Dunn/Bautista = Mets are winning this trade. Any attempt to say otherwise will be answered with Lastings Milledge’s rookie season numbers. The numbers that said he was a bust. Compare these numbers to Kelenic’s rookie/sophmore numbers so far.
Cano for Bruce/Schwarzak = Mets get Cano for ( (120-56)/5 ) or 64/5
that’s Cano at a net cost of 12M per year
Look at Cano’s 2nd half of 2018 AFTER the suspension and hand injuries
With a straight face try to tell me that wouldn’t be worth a net cost of 12M for 5 years….
People here really confuse Cano’s tenure with David Wright’s post 2012 tenure.
Wright signed an 8 year 138 mil contract and delivered for 1 year out of the 8.. And to boot, the Mets turned down trade offers of Nolan Arenado, ran Justin Turner out of town, and made zero attempts to extend or keep Daniel Murphy.. Not to mention making a 31 year old Wright a focal point of a rebuilding club.
It’s almost as if the suburbanites save their energy for anyone browner than a paper bag to start their moneyball internships and microanalyze contracts
FSF
Cano was getting his money whether he was traded or not. Going to the Mets was not a favor for him. Once he had the bloated contract, Cano was set for life. He was just stupid to use PEDs again.
No one will sign Cano even to replace a guy out with COVID for a week or two. Cano was good (enhanced, but good), but if he wants to keep playing it will be foreign or independent league.
Grand scheme of things, Cano is an incredible success story. Great talent, great career, PEDs and a lack of hustle. Almost but not quite a hall of famer, probably and all around great guy but the flaws are there.
No aspiring team will be knocking to sign Cano, first he’s a shell of himself, can’t hit or defend and second he’s a convicted cheat, who wants to introduce a convicted cheat to their team. Nah, I believe no one will come calling for his presence, because its not performance that they will get, just Cano sitting on the bench mentoring young players not to use PEDs, that’s what they will get for the minimum salary.
So, maybe Kelenic wasn’t actually held back then?
Ya, but the Orioles designated Guitierez,
About to say…they really got nobody else. Even Cano at this stage as to be about as good or better than Odor.
Terrible ending to a potential HoF career!
The suspensions probably ruined his chances anyhow
I agree crew. At this point Cano could find a way to play till 50 years old and get over the 3000 hit mark and with 2 PED suspensions I doubt he makes it in to the HOF. All he had to do was NOT cheat and have some longevity and he probably would have made it. Makes me sick guys like Bonds and Clemens etc that got greedy and in reality never had to cheat at all to compete in MLB.
See Palmeiro for same. Dude was locked in until his last year. All he had to do was fade away. Instead, he wanted more.
I know a guy on the Mariners grounds crew. He said Cano was a huge a-hole. By far the biggest jerk on the team. If he never plays again, good riddance.
I make my own assessments on peoples characters and if I don’t have the opportunity to do so, pay it no mind.
I love how they cherry pick which cheaters are somehow HOF worthy, while other players aren’t. Somehow Ortiz, and Pudge (amongst others) get a bye while they keep out two of the greatest players ever in Bonds, and Clemens (they’re not the only players either). The HOF has no credibility after these egregious omissions. Put in the deserving players based on their contributions to the game. The best were still the best. Put asterisks by their names or whatever. But to include some cheaters (who statistically are deserving) but not all is a travesty in my opinion.
Cano is a brink case to me. Like some of you have already said, the ties with PEDs probably omit him without a doubt. Even without those ties he’s on the fence.
“Evidence” is subjective. I don’t think Ortiz ever cheated.
Lol! The only way it would have been more obvious is if he were walking around with a syringe sticking out of his butt. Good grief!
Ok. Actual evidence?
Nope not a HOFer.
he won’t be a HOFer unfortunately with all the extra baggage.
good player in his prime, but sadly these will hang over his head
Maybe he was a good player only because of all the extra baggage.
Not referring to you but it really annoys me when writers, including those on this site, talk about careers like Cano and treat the PED instances as some sort of side footnote all the while digesting their stats as if they should be given legitimacy.
Never was a real fan of him either way. I never liked how he barely hustled down the line. But that one little thing never stopped me from appreciating how skilled he was as a hitter. He was a pretty decent second baseman as well. I’m a met-fan, so I’m a little biased lol. I had to hate him when he played for the Yankees lol
All that you say is true. And he was indeed one of the laziest players out of the box in baseball history.
Agreed. The PED suspensions are the first and last stat needed.
It’s called innocent until proven guilty, a very basic tenet of this country. He was caught a couple of times and served his sentence. You and I have no idea how PEDs impacted his career. Maybe it was the sole reason he was a very good player for so long. Maybe it helped him part of that time. Some people assume he was only good because of the PEDs and others are more honest and say they really don’t know.
Well, I think we can safely say that they enhanced his performance.
Right?
To that end, he cheated. It’s not like players don’t recognize that cheating has bigger consequences than a suspension.
I think it’s “innocent until caught” in Cabo’s case.
I think it’s a great ending to a thief’s career. PED cheaters are thieves.. They steal, hits, runs and wins from other teams. The only rational anyone ever gives to justify their actions is that they are not the only thieves in baseball.
Which is a rally lame excuse.
@halo11fan
99.9% of the time I’d agree. And I’m not a conspiracist. But I have to ask you this…
If you’ve got a 10/$240m deal GUARANTEED why do you go anywhere near a needle. Why, when you’ve been caught once, do you go near that needle again? I might be over estimating intelligence here but why?
Why would you jeopardise that money on the table (to all intents and purposes in the bank) twice?
As an A’s fan (with Laureano & Montas on the roster) I can kind of get why pre-arb or arb players take the gamble. I disagree with it but generational wealth means generational wealth to all of us. But with 10/240 guaranteed – this is the definition of insanity.
Lame or otherwise – when you’ve been caught once & earn $20m a year are you really going to get caught twice?
I’ve blocked A-Rod on line 2 by the way….
Stealing and swindling is not always about the money. You can steal for lots of reasons, but typically you are taking something from someone and that something value and that something wasn’t earned.
Bonds stole because he thought he was entitled. But regardless you are still a thief. You are still taking something you didn’t earn.
Is it stealing when damn near half the league is still doing it?
From a logical standpoint, Cano has no shot at the Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds, potentially the greatest hitter of all time, is not in the Hall of Fame because of steroids. Arod isn’t in the Hall of Fame because of steroids.
Unless the BBWA (or whatever the abbreviation is) loses their minds, they’re not voting for Cano.
Not a chance. Popped twice for PEDs. Seemingly no remorse. Known as a “me” player.
If Bonds isn’t Hall worthy due to PEDs then nobody is.
AWESOME! The correct baseball move.
Dom Smith made their decision when he went 4 for 4 last night. Had he continued to struggle, Cano may still be around. Mets made the right choice and their going to have a special season.
I agree. I figured for sure Smith was being sent to the minors and Cano would get another month or so before they cut bait.
*they’re
Too late. The internet grammar police have added this indiscretion to your permanent record.
Godspeed.
I’m a serial offender at this point.
Same. I’ll be in the jail cell across from you.
Wave hi to Trump for me 🙂
At least you’re not a cereal offender.
Count Chocula is notoriously vindictive.
rais,
Keep this up and marshall law will be declared by the gazpacho police.
It’s not your fault.
Damn the man!
Probably so, since Dom appears to just maybe retain the upside Cano at 39 lacks. Still, Cano at 2B frees up McNeil for the OF, and once the inevitable injuries hit Nimmo, Marte, and even Canha, the Mets will have to use McNeil at 2B even as they start running out OFs of Smith, Lee, and Plummer for a chunk of the summer. They may just miss Cano a little bit at that point, but the assumption probably is that they can pick up a 2Bman no worse than Cano from the waiver wire or by swapping elderly minor leaguers.
It’d be nice to think, ‘well, who better than the Mets FO to know if Cano’s reflexes and bat speed aren’t coming back,’ but this is also the FO that appears to believe Dom is somehow a better 1Bman than Alonso. That’s concerning.
Those who think Pete is a better defensive 1b than Dom are in the minority.
@raisinsss Hard to understand why. Go through their defensive numbers at their player pages at fangraphs and baseballsavant, and Alonso is significantly better in every aspect of defense except, just maybe, scooping—where he’s not bad in any case.
He’s far better at diving and getting to balls out of the typical 1Bman’s range than Smith, for example, a critical skill that prevents a large number of doubles and triples down the line. All of this was the case even prior to 2020, when Alonso’s defense took a significant step forward.
Well, dom was significantly more highly touted through the minors for whatever that’s worth.
I don’t know how it’s possible to even judge him effectively based on very small sample sizes at mlb.
And we don’t talk about left field…
Agreed. We can leave LF out of this.
Forget defensive metrics and watch a game. Pete is average at best defensively. Pop ups are an adventure, range is limited to one step, he stabs at balls in the dirt. Yes, he makes some nice plays, but Dom is far and away better defensively. Dom makes some sick scoops look easy, has two steps on Pete in range, is left handed (for tags on pick offs) and is just smoooooth. I think Dom also has a more accurate arm and just better overall on defense. Pete isn’t a hack and I’m sure he works very hard at improving, but his hands aren’t soft and he’s not nimble. He’s a stocky, muscular guy.
VonPurple
100% agree
A move the Wilpons would have NEVER made. Good for the Mets.
Brian Cashman says ….come on down….Worth a look???
No. Yankee infield already full with 5 people vying for 4 slots and also need playing time for Marwin…
The Yankees never wanted Cano back. They never upped nor countered the Mariners offer. That won’t happen with Judge.
Cohen means business. Gotta love it if you’re a Mets fan.
Mets ain’t screwing around.
he won’t be a HOFer unfortunately with all the extra baggage.
good player in his prime, but sadly these will hang over his head
I didn’t think they’d do it, but it’s the right move.
That is why many teams get burned on these long contracts
Remember this the next time Cashman gets killed for not signing another long one…
@costergaard2 Cashman’s 7/$230m offer to the 30yo seemed like a shocking overpay, but Judge turned it down nonetheless.
Even if Judge ends up elsewhere, Cashman should be off the hook. That’s a huge offer in an era where teams are far more aware of the aging curve. Is Judge really going to crank out 30+ WAR in the next 7 seasons? I can see him putting up 15-20 WAR thanks to injury and decline far more readily than even 35 WAR.
Hard to believe Judge turned it down. He turns an ankle, misses 80 games and he’ll struggle to get $150m this offseason—and what’s he going to do then, look for a pillow contract somewhere at age 31?Those generally don’t result in $250m deals, even if you’re Marcus Semien and do something like lead MLB in WAR for 2019-2021.
I think, by nearly all accounts, Cashman has been off the Judge hook because of their offer. It’s the Judge excuse that people aren’t letting him off the hook for…
Most fans said that was very reasonable in terms of money, and absolutely more than reasonable in terms of years. If Cashman ups the offer to keep Judge at the expense of other areas of potential need in the future, or just at the expense of having an overpaid, oft-injured 39-year-old Judge hanging around, I don’t think most Yankees fans will applaud him for that.
But long term contracts are never meant to payoff on the final years, which is what many fans seems to forget. The hope is that the residual value up front offsets the overpay on the back end.
Plus, with the ever increasing salary numbers, 8 years from now the number probably won’t look that bad.
This was the right choice. The Mets have established a new culture of next man up and Dom is the right guy to move forward with. Cohen has the pockets for this DFA to occur.
Dom’s not the guy, but Cano is even less the guy.
I wish the Reds would do the same with Votto and Moustakas, but that’s almost $80M.
Votto has earned his place in the roster through his past. He deserves to finish it out. That the one player the Reds would be wrong to mess with. Let him play the year out, and go his own way.
Votto has no protection. He’s a better player than his numbers suggest this year. It’s not all his own fault. Don’t lump Cano and Votto into the same category here
No one “deserves” a roster spot except on merit, but in Votto’s case, despite his catastrophic first 90 PA this year, he was terrific last year. And it’s not as if the Reds are stalling on a minor league star’s career by seeing if Votto can get it going away. Still, he’s been one of the worst players in MLB in 2022.
People talk about a team’s loyalty to a player, but what about their loyalty to the other 25 men on the ballclub who presumably are interested in winning? At the point the Reds know Votto won’t rebound, whenever that occurs, they’re obliged to part ways with him.
Votto?!?! I agree on Moose, but setting aside the fan revolt that would happen if they cut Votto, it also wouldn’t make sense from a pure baseball perspective either. The guy hit 36 HRs last year and had a solid OBP of .375, that deserves more than 22 games played this season before giving up on him, he should get the “small sample size” benefit of the doubt for his slow start to this season so far.
Even last year Votto was no superstar. But when you look at the Reds’ roster, there is no reason to cut Votto because there is no stud 1b ready behind him.
Votto was 7th in OPS in 2021.
Votto is the face of the franchise and he historically starts out slow. And he was great just last year. With all of the other money-saving stuff the Reds did this offseason, DFA-ing Votto would lead to a revolt.
Votto didn’t get it together at the plate until June in 2021 and he ended up having a terrific season.
By coincidence, I thought the Mets should have targeted Moustakos + a pitcher (when the Hosmer rumors were floating around).
The best deal that Jerry has made at the Ms.
Calling the trade “disasterous” is not accurate since the deal favors the Mets presently. The Mets shed salary of two players (Swarzak and Bruce) and the M’s have received very little meaningful MLB production from Kelenic or Dunn to date. Dunn was traded and Kelenic’s K-rate will likely prevent him from becoming a regular player. Meanwhile Diaz has been sometimes frustrating but otherwise productive. Cano’s salary turned out to be moot since he wasn’t paid in 2021 and the richest owner in baseball won’t have any issue paying the balance due.
Well if he didn’t get busted for PEDs then it certainly would be.
Point taken but I don’t think you can properly judge Kelenic at age 22 quite yet. I’m guessing he’ll go down to AAA once more before finally figuring things out and being productive.
Seems like most of the top prospects dating back to 2021 are having a hard time hitting the ground running. I’m not declaring anybody them busts. Just might take a season or three to reach their potential. Historically, rookies struggling used to be more the norm.
The writers like to portray all owners as trying to manipulate service time, but the truth is that a lot of these prospects are unprepared. It’s not a universal truth, but most of the time, you need to dominate AA, and then dominate AAA for at least a half-season, and even then, that doesn’t guarantee a smooth transition.
Kelenic is a case study for a guy who was rushed to MLB before he was ready. Hard to know if the damage is irreversible or if they can still get the best out of the player. Him hitting .150 at the ML level is helping no one. He should be sent down to get some of the development time he should have gotten a couple of years ago.
Seeing a lot of that. Watched adell and mickey m??? with Phillies. Still young but looked very overmatched and not ready.
With Lewis, Winker, Haniger, J-Rod…Kelenic really has no where to go…
not to mention SEA has a couple of OTHER OF prospects champing at the bit…
his next move is more than likely out of the team and trade bait. With his stock down, he’s not going to command what he once did…
Justin Dunn had shoulder issues and got traded…so thats done…
Nah…to be honest, the only thing SEA did was trade ( another ) great reliever for salary relief. That was it.
Philadelphia traded away the current best offensive player in all of MLB for Jean Segura.
If any team is kicking themselves in the pants…it has to be them
Diaz has been very underrated due to his poor year 1 in NY. But he’s been great since. And if the Mets do anything significant with him as the closer (assuming Kelenic continues to disappoint) the Mets made a pretty decent trade. It was only considered bad because everyone thought Kelenic was going to be a transcendent outfielder. He wouldn’t even be rostered on this version of the Mets.
Well, it’s not moot. Sure, money isn’t really an apparent impediment to Cohen, but you have to consider opportunity cost. For example, $20m a year is the difference between Escobar and Arenado at 3B, hypothetically.
While it might have crippled a franchise like the Reds, the Mets and Cohen can eat it. I just wouldn’t dismiss it entirely. Still money that could have been better spent.
The Segura for JP is a contender for best too.
Segura’s been pretty good for the Phils. That’s really the difference here. I definitely think Seattle won that trade, but it’s close. Whereas dumping the Cano contract was a clear win.
Segura was ok. Not great
in SEA – .302 .345 .421 .765
in PHI – .279 .334 .422 .756
He made 6M and then 9M in SEA
He’s made about 15M per year in PHI
He’s a FA after this season.
Phils won nothing with him, and now have a void at SS ( Didi is another dud at 15M )
Didi is one of MLB’s worst defensive SS and he has a OPS below ,699
Wow.
I hope he reports to Syracuse.
Justin Upton is not surprised
Cohen has the money. But it’s sending the right message to Cano. Should have been done last year or immediately when his suspension was done.
Maybe, but I don’t fault them for seeing if 2020 was for real at all.
Having seen enough of him in 2022, I think he’s cooked.
No, it made perfect sense to give Cano a month to see if he could prove that he could outhit Smith and McNeil. McNeil is on fire and Smith is doing ok with a great day yesterday. Now was the first and correct time to cut Cano, not too soon and not too late. Rare the Mets get something like that right but this time they are spot on.
Keeping Cano for a few weeks maybe even had McNeil and Smith working harder. So it worked out great and was time to cut Cano.
No way he was gonna be that good. 28 man roster, why not keep the old man for a spell but the writing has been on the wall for a while with this guy. He’s old, that’s all.
This is really tough news to hear and my week is officially ruined already on Monday afternoon. It’s a real shame when the good guys get the shaft. I hope another team gives Cano a chance because he’s a great role model for the kids
Good guys? Bruh. He cheated 3 times. Good riddance. I don’t care how “nice” he was. When you cheat multiple times you lose the good guy label. He’s a straight up villain when it comes to baseball. May be a great dude off the field.
And he said he’s a role model? I’m peeing over here!!! Lol
Snark alert.
For something that directly doesn’t effect you and your life, you allow too much that you don’t control to make up how good a day you’ll have. If cano being DFAd is ruining your life, you need to find something to do for yourself. Because he will still pay his bills regardless of how you feel. Refocus your life bud, just saying.
You’re kidding! He’s a PED user who never hustled once in his life. Good role model? Give me a break!
I didn’t think it could be any more obvious that I was being sarcastic. Note to self, people on the internet are bad at detecting sarcasm
No, you were about as obvious as you could be, without actually saying that you were being sarcastic. I gave you a +1 without even thinking about whether or not you were serious.
I mean, you spend enough time here you realize that some folks do hold such absurdist views, so it’s not always obvious when someone makes a sarcastic comment like that.
Ronk, no one should have taken your comment seriously. Cosmo is a solid poster, so I’ll give him a pass. I’ve misread a few posts myself over the years, but yours seemed pretty clear on the sarcasm meter.
I will apologize for thinking you were serious, as it did go over my head. I was quite shocked to have read it as such… So with that, I apologize.
There’s no need to apologize. I got a good laugh out of the responses. Just a tip for the future. If you see three straight ridiculous sentences like that, there’s at least a 90% chance it’s sarcasm
I agree with you cosmo. There are plenty of posters here who do have such incorrect points of view where you really don’t know with utmost certainty if they are being serious or not.
Ronk there have been far more absurd things said on here where the poster was not being sarcastic.
Oh I know, there’s a certain fan of a team that wears blue and orange who is well known for that. However, Cano has long been indefensible, so I figured people would easily detect the sarcasm
Unfortunately, on MLBTR, ridiculous statements are made all the time. It’s impossible to detect sarcasm.
My sarcasm radar is definitely off today
I guess Sheldon Cooper isn’t the only one who doesn’t recognize sarcasm.
Ronk………
There are people who still defend A-Rod, passionately. I would suggest adding the /s at the end of such statements in the future.
To me it was obvious sarcasm but some people don’t digest it. Add a /sarc tag or wink
I recognize your irony, Ronk. Gave me a chuckle.
Great role model? Who swore to Mets and Mets fans that he did not do PED’s when he signed the big deal with the Mets and the test was a mistake!
That is fraud in my opinion and he should be in jail let alone reap the benefits of a contract.
I am always surprised that teams don’t sue the players for just that.
What, wait, woah!
Whoa!!! Oh woe is me
I brought this up here a few months ago as an option for the Mets, and was told there was no way they’d do it. Welp… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And I’m sure many also thought it was possible if he didn’t hit. In fact, that was the likely consensus. See if he had anything left in the tank, and if not, move on.
Agree, seemed like common sense to me. But I was met with a few definitive “nopes”.
A few months ago it was NOT a good option for the team. They needed to see what he had. He actually had a good spring and a good first week of the season. It became a good option today – the day rosters had to be trimmed.
It was a fine option a few months ago, though I believe my argument at the time was they wouldn’t hesitate to cut bait at some point during the season if he looked like toast, and that’s exactly what happened.
Real shame. If he stayed clean he’d probably end up in the 3000 hit club
Either that or he’d never have been any good at all…
Cano is quite strong, he will get through this adversity.
Adversity? Worst case scenario he retires a millionaire. Adversity?
More sarcasm went over my head, I’m guessing.
Finally draining the Wilpon swamp. Love it!
I find it comical lindor is pissed he’s being DFAd when he specifically in the off season said the dude needed to come and apologize. He did, he apologized. But that’s like saying ok, let’s sweep this BS under the rug and forget about it. Once again, players need to play. Too much input. Just zip it and play.
Lindor is a prima donna. He really should head back to the barber to get that hair dye washed out.
A prima donna for having dyed hair. Are you 90 years old? Because that opinion is straight out of the 1950s.
@rct He’s not a prima donna for dyeing his hair, he’s a buffoon for dyeing his hair blue.
rct, even in 2022 Lindor’s hairdo from Party City is a bad look. Somebody who cares about him ought to tell him.
A buffoon for having dyed hair. Same question to you: are you 90 years old? Because that opinion is straight out of the 1950s.
It’s fitting that he dons a clown wig
I agree with you on Lindor’s hair. It’s hard to like him when he looks like that.
Same hairdo I had back in 1990, and even I agree.
Yeah, Lindor Really has had the wrong take on just about everything since he’s come to New York. I don’t have a problem with him, and he’s an enjoyable player to watch, but if it were up to him The roster right now would be filled with fan-hating goofs like Baez and Stroman. There’s a reason players play and don’t run the team (take notes NBA!). For the first time in a very long time, I have a lot of pride being a Mets fan because sanity has taken hold in Flushing and sound decisions are being made Not just on the baseball side, but on the fan-perception side of things. Mets are No longer being run like a disgrace, with the owners and upper management giving the fans the finger. And now we don’t get the finger from the players anymore either! Nice!
“The roster right now would be filled with fan-hating goofs like Baez and Stroman…..”
Funny how no one in Detroit or Chicago has a problem with Baez and Stroman.
And Lindor pretty much gets along with everyone…..
The comments he made made about Cano, were the same he would’ve made about any player.
I’m glad they cut Cano. Without any drama and it was done respectfully.
Dating back to Seaver being run out of town with rumors around his wife…to George Foster…to Darryl…to Beltran, Reyes, Dickey…to modern day players…
The Mets ALWAYS goofed up this stuff. I’m proud they now look like every other team,,,
Stroman has been a problem everywhere he’s been. Give it time, Chicago. He got pushed out of Toronto, wore out his welcome in NY.
Reds should sign him to make people believe they care
Lol!!!!!
They could pay him to play and be an offensive liability (automatic out) and take up a spot on the roster, or they can pay him to go. Either way he gets paid. I know Lindor wants him in the clubhouse, but he will get over it. This was the right move for many reasons.
Correct. They assessed his skills at this stage, as well as their current roster needs, and decided they had better options and needs. It’s possible Cano is not finished and simply needs more ABs and playing time. Some team will now look at him at league minimum to see if he can help.
He was swinging like an old rusty gate. Then you saw him trying to guess fastball because he knew he wasn’t going to catch up. So they starting throwing him curveballs and pitchers had him chasing. Father Time and PED free baseball is undefeated. His time in a ML uniform should be over.
@metsie, yes, likely. I simply wouldn’t rule out another team giving him a shot at the league minimum.
If the Mets want Cano in the clubhouse they can sign him as an assistant coach. It will not happen though.
he could be a minor league coach.
I could see him mentoring kids
Canos huge ego screwed up his career. Chased more money to a losing club in Seattle then the PEDs thinking he wouldnt get caught.
He sucks now.
He was likely doing PEDs his entire career, even on the Yanks. He’s been caught multiple times. There’s no reason to think he was ever clean.
I don’t think Cano was juicing while with the Yankees and it’s not just because they’re my team. He was A-Rod’s teammate when the biogenesis scandal came out and didn’t get popped then.
I look to the 2015 season as the likely starting point for Cano’s juicing. He only had 35 HRs combined his first two years in Seattle after hovering around the 30 per year mark his last few years with the Yankees. Then suddenly Cano blasts a career high 39 in 2015.
At league minimum, someone will take a shot and pick him up once he’s officially cut.
Has anyone picked up Upton?
Not yet, but Upton’s words made it unclear if he was even interested. We heard several teams were interested, but they may not have interested him. All teams are in cut mode and knee that was coming. Give it a few weeks.
Baseball purists disgust me when they talk about PED use. Let’s talk about the rampant amphetamine use that was going on in the 1970s. Or the cocaine use in the 1980s Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry weren’t the only ones. With millions of dollars on the line for our families 99% of us would say shoot me up doc. Everyone would jump at the chance of generational wealth, at least they didn’t throw a World Series like the 1919 White Sox and yet Shoeless Joe Jackson still managed to get in.
Get in to…. The hall of fame? not that I’m aware of
Cocaine is NOT a PED! It hurts performance! You’re equating apples and oranges. Not all drugs are the same, you know.
You ever used cocaine? I have, let’s say a team has a day game after the night game. I’m 23 and I decided I wanted to party. I go out and just get blasted drunk because I’m 23 rich and enjoying my life. Next day comes, in the morning I’m hung over like whoa. I need a pick me up just so I can get out of bed so I go do a bump and it wakes me up. I’m alert and have no residual effects from that hang over. I know this works because I’ve done this with my own work. Get drunk as a skunk at 2 am, go to Dennys get a meal go to the car do a couple lines be ready for work at 4 am.
Being wired on something that makes people jumpy might not help one’s eye-hand coordination, tho, even if it helps you stay awake. It doesn’t do much for one’s life in the long run either, as illustrated by some of the historic examples in baseball.
We can debate whether or not cocaine is a PED, but known PEDs still damage the sport. For a while MLB overlooked it, but that’s not the case anymore. If you get caught, your career performance should be discounted.
Coke supposedly ruined Dwight Gooden’s career but that is a myth. Davey Johnson made Dwight Gooden pitch too many needless innings and that is what curtailed what should have been a great career. I read in Sports Illustrated that there is a hardening of cartilage in a pitcher’s arm until about the age of 25. If he pitches too much and doesn’t have the cartilage to protect him, he will suffer a great deal. Overuse at a young age did the same thing to Fernando Valenzuela. It also shortened Bret Saberhagen’s career. If anything, coke prolonged Dwight Gooden’s career because he went to Smithers for rehab and gave him a little break.
how do I get on invite list?
Have you ever done cocaine? Certainly its a PED. Reference: Sigmund Freud, “On Coca””
You’re both wrong. Look at the careers DESTROYED by cocaine there are many. It does more harm than good. Coke heads THINK they are enhanced but it’s a delusion. Coke makes people annoying, talkative, over confident, but not better. That’s the illusion.
showman
Have you ever done cocaine? Certainly its a PED.
=================================
Sure, why not, confession being good for the soul.
But cocaine is not a sustainable PED, same as speed. For an SP, it’s fine. I’m not sure it helps, but you only do it once every five days.
But you can’t do coke or speed every day. It might come in handy if you’re coming back from the west coast, and you’re playing that night. Or maybe a day game after a night game.
But if you are doing lines before a night game, how long does the high last? Not long enough to last thru the next AB. So if you do a line before each AB, Speed is even worse. That’ll maintain your high, but then you’ll need some alcohol to bring you down in order to get even a poor night’s sleep.
I assume players did it, but I doubt there is much long-term advantage.
@JoeBrady, yes, I think that’s the correct view. Coke is a PED, but not a sustainable one.
Cocaine’s one hell of a drug.
Perhaps one of the greatest skits on the Chappelle Show if not variety shows period.
Joe Brady: I think we’ve disagreed on this subject in the past, but that post is spot on accurate. Well said!
I don’t really mind that competitive athletes wanted to perform at higher levels, it’s the denial and lying that I despise. If you used PEDs admit it already.
Coke? Haha yeah big time PED. Certainly didn’t derail Gooden’s career at all. Nope sure didn’t.
Exactly, Gooden, Dave Parker…
It also didn’t keep Tim Raines out of the Hall of Fame. Just saying…
Purist in comparison to being opposed to performance enhancing drugs is quite a leap.
Comparing the benefits of amphetamines and cocaine to PED’s, which is laughable, is also disingenuous.
Amphetamines are PEDs. That’s why so many MLB players got Therapeutic Use Exemptions to use Adderall, an amphetamine — 119 players in 2013. The fact that MLB allowed those exemptions shows what a farce the league’s anti-drug program is. The idea that professional ballplayers with enough focus to make it all the way to the majors would need drugs to treat attention deficit disorder at a far higher rate than in the general population strains credulity.
I don’t think amphetamines are as effective, especially at the dosages intended to treat ADD, or other drugs wouldn’t have later become so popular among athletes wanting a boost. Large amounts of Adderall will also quickly lead to high blood pressure.
Maybe someone with extremely difficult ADD could never make it all the way to the major leagues, but I would not assume that’s the case for everyone who has untreated ADD.
‘Last year, Mets catcher Mike Piazza also said use of amphetamines was common.
‘”Cheap and easy to find, these little buggers will open your eyes, and sharpen your focus and get your blood moving on demand, over and over again, right through a full 162-game season,” Wells wrote. “A lot of guys will buy themselves a season-long stockpile at one time. We’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of pills … Alternate eye-openers include the gobbling of caffeine pills (sometimes by the fistful). Red Bull, Ripped Fuel and sometimes even Ritalin.”’
espn.com/mlb/news/2003/0227/1515302.html
Amphetamines… used consistently in moderate doses could possibly be an enhancement. Good luck with that. But most these drugs, most particularly coke, lend them selves to downward spirals as opposed to success. The Sherlock Holmes argument is pure fiction. The whole idea of drugs/control…. Temporary benefit/deterioration
Well, I don’t trust a likely cheater to provide an accurate picture. How would revealing ugly secrets about baseball be of any benefit to him? And again, I don’t believe amphetamines are the drug of choice. It seems clear that others drugs passed amphetamines in popularity long ago.
Amphetamines were so pervasive in MLB clubhouses, the coffee was spiked with speed:
‘Amphetamines have become as much a part of the clubhouse scene as card games and hot feet. In a Kansas City Star story last year, former Royals outfielder Brian McRae recalled how there were always two pots of coffee brewing in the clubhouse — one conventional and the other laced with stimulants. “I had to make sure I got the unleaded,” McRae said.’
espn.com/espn/print?id=2289509&type=story
That trade was bad but it will only truly be “disastrous” if Kelenic pans out. So far, not good, but still very early in his career.
37.6 mill for Cano to stay home, huh? plus the other millions he had already collected on PEDs mostly. Not bad not bad at all. God bless them Mets…
You don’t have Cano to kick around anymore.
Robbie Cano, Don’t ya Know?
He is not a crook. When the DH of the New York Mets does it, it’s not illegal!
if he gets released, he could be useful to someone on the league minimum
Not if he doesn’t get significantly better. He’s terrible right now.
Another example of a long-term deal turned sour. Are you taking note of this, Hal? No long-term deal to Judge.
What long term deal HASN’T soured towards the end?
Easy do I get the leaded gasoline? Scherzer
What’s sad is that this deal turned sour in the short-term as well.
Cano should’ve been in pinstripes his entire career. Straight stupidity on the part of the Yankees front office back then. Not sure if anyone remembers but they had a policy that wouldn’t allow them to extend their players prior to free agency.
I know it sounds strange but I actually can give some kudos for Cano taking PED’s AFTER he signed that mega-deal. At least he was trying to live up to the hype of the contract and produce instead of just collecting the pay check.
Who says he wasn’t doing PEDs the whole time?
He probably was taking the juice from an early age which is why he never really ranked high on any prospect lists. More or less just saying he genuinely cared about putting up good numbers even though he got the big contract. How often do we see guys get paid and then never come close to putting up the same stat line again all while being completely okay with it bc they are rich as ish.
He cared enough to cheat. That’s your story?
If, as you said, “He probably was taking the juice from an early age,” he cheated his peers at the position, taking a job that another player might’ve won if Cano had played clean.
Cano was always overrated. One of the guys who would get lots of hits and RBIs in meaningless games or after the Yanks had a big lead. I’m glad he’s been gone for 9 years
The Yankees did extend Cano once. He was one of the few exceptions. That’s why he was with the team for nine seasons instead of six. They did try to negotiate on a second extension a year out from free agency, but Canó’s attitude was no more discounts. He wanted to get market price. Judge is now doing the same. The difference is I don’t believe the Yankees wanted Cano back. They made a strong offer with a higher AAV, but didn’t want to go beyond seven years (they were correct) and never attempted to top the Mariners offer. They liked Canó’s production, but I suspect they didn’t necessarily like him for reasons we can only guess. That won’t be the case with Judge. They’ll go the extra mile to keep him, but if some team goes the extra two miles, there’s a point when you move on.
HAHAHAHAHA. Mets gonna Met!
Yeah, hahahaha…FIRST PLACE 16-7 Mets! LOL!
Remember last April? And then came the collapse as always.. Were in first place as of August 13, and then finished 3rd and 8 games under .500… I’ll be keeping tabs with ya
Ironically this is a very un-Met act of getting better (and younger).
The Mets thing about it was the trade for him in the first place
I am glad he played this year so I can put him on my “All Older Than Me” team. This might be the last year I can do it.
Some teams are making brutal cuts to get down to 26 players, but this move makes sense for the Mets.
Woah !
You’re late!
Cano is 39, he has a WS ring, he has made over $200M with another $46M coming. Why play for league minimum when retirement looks so good?
Because maybe he still loves baseball and missed it last year?
I’d play for nothing.
If he doesn’t sign with another team, will he still have to take drug tests for the remainder of his contract? Those tests are 99.7% accurate or whatever, but that still means 3 out of every 1000 tests are incorrect. Since this is his last strike. it might be safer to just go home and collect checks at this point. Although I am not sure right now. If he fails a test with another team and gets banned for life, does he still get the Mets money? I would think it would be forfeited, but I knows releasing a player kind of stops certain sanctions.
Smart move by the team. Better to have done it soon rather than wait.
Not to be overlooked in this is how Sleepy Dom Smith awoke last night in Prime Time while his name was on the chopping block. LOL
And what if Kelenic never pans out?
I get the hype, but he’s been below replacement level up to this point.
Not to say it was a good trade, but say Diaz closes out the WS, you think anyone is going to care about what they had to give up? And doesn’t Cano deserve blame for wasting what little he had in the tank by getting suspended?
Of course most of you are so reactionary you can’t help yourselves but go Lol Mets at every opportunity.
Any scenario can be anything if you add enough “ifs” to it. If Kelenic busts out. If Diaz closes out the WS. If Kelenic becomes Willie Mays.
Honestly Kelenic doesn’t even need to pan out for it to always be a win for the Mariners. They not only cashed out on a pitcher at likely their peak value, they got Cano off their books. Only thing Kelenic’s career path does at that point is make it go from a good trade, to highway robbery. When you can get out from under a bad contract the way they did here, that’s always going to be a win. But they were even able to do it before the contract became even worse.
Hmm … somehow that principle isn’t evenly applied. Did the Rockies “win” by getting out from under Arenado’s deal, which is something like $13m a year more than Cano’s?
The fact that you have to put this much energy into substantiating your position suggests it was not much of an overpay. Like at all.
I think you also have to factor in that Justin Dunn was a key piece in getting Winker and Suarez from the Reds. That adds value to the overall haul as well.
Diaz closing out a WS just will never happen, not for the Mets atleast.
Perseus Dipoto’s greatest trade. Freed up a ton of payroll and added a stud prospect.
As far as Cano, career PED users only get into the HOF if they play for Boston and have a cute nickname. Cano did neither.
The REALEST comment ever placed on this page.
‘As far as Cano, career PED users only get into the HOF if they play for Boston and have a cute nickname. Cano did neither.’
Kelenic kind of sucks. And I think the Mets knew he would be exposed at MLB level.
Given the right situation, he can still make a meaningful contribution to a team. Well, yeah, there’s always a team that can use an extra hot dog vendor. But I’m sure most teams can find plenty of other ways to fill a roster.
give Bobby Bonilla a lump sum of $16.6M to take care of the $1.19M per year through 2035. Be done with Bobby Bonilla day too
Bobby Bonilla Day is fun.
Let’s harp on Bobby Bonilla cause it fits the LOL Mets narrative that so many love to parrot.
Granted, it doesn’t run until 2035, but the Nationals are no strangers to deferred contracts. They are paying Scherzer $45 mil to play for the Mets for the duration of his contract and $15 mil a year through 2028. And let’s not forgot Strasburg, Soriano, and Murphy who also have deferred money coming to them.
By the way, the next Bobby Bonilla is Chris Davis who will be getting paid a lot more than Bonilla through 2037.
OK. You go ahead and pay off a house now instead of paying a monthly mortgage. Surely it is just that easy.
A much shorter Bonilla gravy train, but still…………no way he makes the HOF. He might have the most cumulative PED days of suspension in the history of baseball.
‘The right situation..’
Translation: some random foreign league where he can juice and they don’t test for it (or care).
Looks like the Angels started a trend!!
Cano to the Pirates
for opponents of long-term contracts., we present Exhibit C, A, N and O
Christmas has come EARLY for ME!
I might have to change my screen NAME.
Enough said right. 🙂
Happy Days are here Again. 🙂
I remember people saying this guy was better than Chase Utley. Not even close.
There isn’t a single offensive stat that Utley was better at than Cano…. Literally not one besides the fact that Cano got caught with PED’s. Soooo yeah, no one is wrong to say he’s better than Utley, he was.
Cano and Utley are very comparable. Nearly identical fWAR totals.
They said he had better hair than Utley.
Well given that Chase Utley is presently like 60 yrs old, yes. He’s better than Chase Utley.
Chase Utley is 43 years old. Robbie Cano is 39 years old. That seems comparable to me.
Only a lousy NY team can muster this much response about PED using punk getting release. Because as we and ESPN all know, The world evolves around the East Coast teams. And Yet the best player in MLB. plays on the West Coast and gets…….
I always thought the world “evolved” around me.
In fairness, the first time Cano got popped, he WAS on a West Coast team. But I guess that fact doesn’t really let you use the chip on your shoulder. Oh well.
BTW, I am pretty sure we heard the name Shohei Ohtani at least a billion times on ESPN and MLB network last season.
Cano cost himself $36M by his PED use on the Mariners and Mets, and also a shot at the HOF. Very costly, yet he also banked a ton. Maybe this isn’t the end of the road for him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is it. He hit well in ST and started off well the first week. Is the last three weeks what Cano is now, or is it rust, a slump, and cold weather? He sure has looked over matched, which you rarely would see with prime Cano, even when he was slumping.
Van Wagenen; the worst person to ever serve as a GM and has damaged the Mets for years to come is trying to make money on Cano for a third time! Van Lunchwagon assured the Mets owners at the time that Cano was not on PED’s. Both should be in jail in my opinion for fraud and any team that picks him up is supporting cheating and drug use.
Was it really a disastrous trade? Best player in the deal is still very much Diaz, and Kelenic is kind of half way to bustville. Yeah the Mets took on the money, but the M’s contributed too and that kind of money is irrelevant to a NY market team. I’d say more like neutral.
Yeah I’m not an Ms nor Mets fan, so I don’t have skin the game, but I thought the use of “disastrous” was quite an overreach. Sure Diaz has had his challenges, but an elite closer is very hard to come by. Kelenic may eventually pan out, he’s still quite young, but through about 450 plate appearances, last season’s .181/.265/.350 and this year’s .141/.211/.297 aren’t making the “disastrous” case by any means.
I think the idea of “disastrous” is a matter of timing. If the Mets had been one closer and a second baseman away from glory, it might look better. It was just a dumb gamble at the wrong time by an agent trying to catch lightning in a bottle as GM. Didn’t work as planned.
“Given the right situation” = going back to juicing.
The fact that he’s a PED user seems to bring the sanctimony out in all of us. But the theory is that some of the biggest names in the game have been on cycles for years. They don’t get caught because they follow the advice of people who know how the cycles work.
Like the saying, “he who represents himself has a fool for a client.”. Knowing when and when not to cycle is a valuable skill-set. One Cano obviously did not have. If you’re making millions, pay the expert to tell when and when not to. cycle..
Cano was sloppy and got caught, but the PED trade in the Caribbean thrives.
Because if you cheat the right way it’s not cheating.
Its not a theory, its a fact that most of the big names are on PEDs. The stakes are just to high not to be anymore and if you think guys can play 140+ games, stay healthy, stay in shape the way they do, you are wrong. Its just not possible naturally.
This is what the long term contracts for free agents has become. Teams have to pay huge money for little or no production at the end of the deal. I know, this old man is whining and crying again, but the current trend of eating salary will keep teams handcuffed. Just to free themselves of the Pujols and Cano type contracts in an effort to be competitive, teams just cut the cancer out, take a huge hit and delay building a better team for another season. Gotta love free agency, NOT. This is what I have been saying for years. Owners take all the risks, players take zero risks, even when they cheat. These “highly skilled” athletes just are not worth the money for the long haul. If agents and players want to make a contract look good, at least get big bucks early on and then, as they crawl through the contract, have the annual amount be less each year. The reduction in pay will match the reduction in production.
There’s a bigger picture you’re missing, “old man”. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. The CBT is calculated with an annual average salary of the totality of a contract. Owners are willing to pay big bucks on the back-end of a contract because they’re hoping to gain surplus value from a player in their first few years of it. It sounds like you don’t like guaranteed contracts. The owners could’ve eliminated them during the last CBA negotiated but that idea was never broached.
YankeeBleacher – You are correct, for reasons already stated, I do not like guaranteed, long term contracts. Though only a handful offer some degree of success in the beginning, they seem to have more of a crippling affect from early midway towards the end. I don’t think the bigger picture is worth the short term payoff. Obviously, MLB teams think the opposite. I do understand how the “average salary” works, so perhaps it is working the way I would prefer, but when Joey Votto and Miguel Cabrera collect a humongous check for what they are doing now, it still makes me cringe. Seeing the Angels cut out the cancerous contracts of underperforming players like Albert Pujols and then Justin Upton, to me is unethical on the players’ part of honoring a contract. I am old school where I feel like people should earn every penny of their agreement. The appearance of being grossly overpaid makes it hard for me to accept contracts that are extended beyond a player’s usefulness to the point where it damages the team. I know, the owners make the offers, but they do it with high expectations, thus the high dollar amounts. Just my opinion. Thanks for chiming in.
@JerryBird I understand your points and those days are gone where retiring players walk away from contracts and leave money on the table. The MLBPA holds too much clout and strongly dissuades it. I think the last time it happened was Gil Meche retiring with $12M left and said something along the lines of earning his keep.
No one found to be associated with or caught using PEDs or gambling on baseball should have any thought of being placed into the HOF until Shoeless Joe Jackson is exonerated. The End.
Baseball is a beautiful game, but also an honest game. Very few players can perform into their late-30s / 40s (Cano will be 40 in October). Hopefully we’ve seen the end of the long-term contracts that extend into a player’s age of 40+.
That being said, we may still see short-term contracts (esp for pitchers) going into the 40s like Verlander or Scherzer, but the 10-year contract that extends into the 40s is hopefully long gone. It’s not good for the game, the team, nor the player’s legacy.
Hopefully, yea. Somehow I feel like Cohen or Moreno are gonna end up pooping on that hope.
He wouldn’t be any worse than anything the A’s are are sending to the plate
Will sign with the Detroit tigers once he clears waivers
For first base or second you think? Early issues for Detroit now but gotta hope someone picks it up. Schoop? Cabrera seems done but you’re kinda stuck with him.
Leaving Yankees was step one of his downward spiral.
Leaving the Yankees was every step of his spiral. But 60 million is a lot of$$ he will never get to HOF but if he’s released.. I can see a reunion with Yanks. He’s a lefty bat with a little pop left. Probably can play 3b if needed
“little pop left” the only pop he has left is whatever he swallows!
After 40 ABs ? There are many struggling players with double that lets just dump them all
Old. Done. PEDs. Wouldn’t have been crazy to have cut him before spring training. He’s had enough chances. The team doesn’t need him right now.
You can’t just look at the stat line & number of ABs.
He looks pretty lost at the plate. Can’t catch velo, can’t lay off bad breaking balls and offspeed. No speed, no range, defensive liability.
Until today, he was the worst hitter and worst defender on the Mets roster by far.
A larger sample size won’t make him faster or improve his bat speed.
+1. I’d much rather see J.D. Davis and Dom Smith getting his DH at bats.
Personally I’d rather see Dom at 1B a little more often. Pete is deceptively average and I’m not sure we’ve seen enough of Dom at the MLB level to get to his 60FV grade in fielding (Pete is 40, per fangraphs).
I love Dom Smith but this is why you shouldn’t draft first basemen. You end up with too many of them without even trying.
Good, get this cheater away from our clubhouse. Kelenic still may end up being a good or great player, but right now Diaz looks like the only really good part of that tease for either team. Well, that and all the money Seattle unloaded
I can’t believe he played all those games barefoot. Remarkable.
*NANTUCKET NIPSEYHUSTLES
Can be had for league minimum for the next two seasons and sits 368 hits away from 3000. Is there someone out there willing to give him a shot?
Bobby Bo 2.0
Can’t be mad at the Mets for bringing Cano back into the fold for the start of this season, he actually had decent stats in the DL this winter and a good spring training but he’s done and has been for 3+ years. Tried to get the most out of a terrible situation and the end has come, finally!
Don’t be mad. Be sad.
Shame Cano derailed a HOF type career but he will have enough money to live like a king.
Think Nelson Cruz will be joining him as soon as this month.
So happy for Buck. He has that combo of brilliant baseball mind and knowing how to use it with respect to ownership style of management. Grateful to Mr. Angelos for bringing him to Baltimore (9 yrs of Buck here, wonderful). That said, I like your owner,Mr. Cohen. Seems to be different than Angelos. Peter being very hands on with baseball decisions and passionate about it. Cohen relying on his baseball people plus tweets from fans for direction. Case in point. Mr Angelos was a huge Chris Davis fan. When the rest of the world knew it was time to cut ties, he couldn’t do it. Only recently, since Mr Angelos turned operations over to his sons, was the team able to move on from Chris and the CONTRACT! Conversely, looks like Buck and staff said to Mr. Cohen, “time to move on from Cano” and he said “ok” to eating the Mets version of the CONTRACT. Again, so happy for Buck. You guys are in for a treat. Enjoy it!
At the time, Davis was the most prolific power hitter in the game. The fact that his numbers fell off a cliff, notwithstanding, most Orioles fans wanted him back(at the time).
Lindor wanted him to stay. Maybe we can unload Lindor next.
No offense to Lindor but I’ll care more about what he wants when he puts up a couple seasons living up to that contract.
Cano will eventually retire with $252 million in career salaries and the full MLB pension.
He should be fine.
Could have had that, along with a HOF plaque. But he’s a cheater with no integrity. So yeah, congrats on the 250mil. But too bad the legacy is ruined.
I’m sure this HOF plaque thing will be on his mind uninterruptedly while he fishes off his Caribbean yacht, drying his tears with 100-dollar bills.
He’s had to forfeit 40 million due to suspensions for PEDs. He’s literally be juicing his whole career. He gets caught serves his suspension has a terrible season because he’s not juicing and then he starts back up again until he gets caught. Zero credibility to any of his numbers
Had to forfeit $40 million and still got to keep a quarter of a billion.
I bet Cano sleeps easy like a baby in one of his mansions.
Wouldnt be funny if the Dodgers signed him and he becomes this years Pujols them next year he signs with the Yankees lol
It was funny until you got to the next year Yankees part. That’s not, Kyle.
He will be signed by Baltimore to try out yet another Min pay 2B since Odor is worse than we thought he was and we thought he was baaaaad.
That’s a headline I didn’t expect to see, although I haven’t been following his struggles this year.
Universal DH might be bringing him somewhere. I know a lot of Yankee fans hated to see him go, I was not one of them but best of luck Robbie
*ROCHESTER RABBITS
*RIDGEWAY RIGGLEDEUCES
and another lame joke for 48 seriously its not funny anymore just stop already
Worst trade in baseball history. All of his numbers were produced by PEDs
Wonder if Canó could fill a void with the jays, at least until a deal for another bat comes up.
If he got a game a week at first when vlad dh’s, rest of the time dh or bat off bench.
Jays energy, especially with all of the Caribbean players (jays dug out is referred to as the barrio), might be the right environment for him to contribute meaningfully.
What void could he possibly fill? He is the void, of the ‘A’ variety (Avoid). Teoscar and Jansen will be back and the bats will warm up.
You Know I always liked Cano… I loved his smile in dugout. Him and Melky were so energetic in the Yankee dugout. But Cano is not Bonds he’s no Arod both cheaters.. but both the best in the primes of careers. If Cano would have stayed in NY at least he’d have great numbers. I hope he catches on somewhere. But he’s basically done
Someone picks him up for the minimum I bet.
Interesting career….tremendous talent when he came up–you could see it, Terrific production, possible HOF arc, but tainted and then the sharp decline. He won’t get close, despite 69 career WAR.
One PED suspension – maybe. Two suspensions have unfortunately sealed his fate. He’ll be remembered but not revered.
Now Yankees probably thinking, Gallo or Cano, Gallo or Cano….
Gallo is better
Sounds like an upgrade for the Reds lol!!!
As a former newspaper reporter, my headline for this story would have been: “Cano Canoes out of NYC with a Boatload of $$$”
I’m a Yankees fan, but I respect Cohen for doing what was best for the Mets. Bravo!
Cano’s absurd contract with the Mariners was one of the few times the Yankees were smart enough to walk away for a ridiculously long contract for a (then) very good player.
How many times do teams have to get screwed in long-term deals before they start typing games played & production to the contracts. I love Judge, for example, but any team who pays him $35MM/year until he’s 37 or 38 is going to end up eating $70 Million, at minimum, on the back end, as the Cano, Cabrera, and Pujols contracts illustrate.
It’s Exceedingly rare that any player is great in his mid- to late-30s. Some are decent, but most are no longer a true force by age 35.
Hindsight 20/20 sign Cano or Els? Which deal do you make? You have to make one because they did.
Cano
Reds have nothing to lose in taking a flyer on Cano. Even if his presence is merely a distraction from their free fall, it would be worth league minimum.
I agree with this, and hope they lose 130+ games.
They risk making an even bigger spectacle of themselves? I never understand why fans think some lucky-to-be-replacement level player is gonna help a losing team. They should focus on young guys others have given up on, not a washed up vet.
Can you imagine how badly Cano’s numbers would have fallen off if he WASN’T using PEDs?? Good riddance!
Should have released him on Bobby Bonilla day.
Did they restructure Bonillas contract to pay him?
How much worse can Detroit be with Cano? Put him at 2nd. Schoop might relax and start hitting if moved back to 1st. Send Tork back to AAA to find a stroke.
That trade negotiation must have been hilarious!
“You just told me he was worth a quarter of a billion dollars and now you admit you don’t think he’s worth anything?”
“Well, I, uh, the Mets aren’t, well, can we make a bigger deal where you just get a prospect?”
He’ll find interest, but he may have to start with a minor league deal with an opt out. He should do it if it if he wants to play and show he’s only dealing with rust.
Still looking like the Mets won that trade after all. Didn’t have to pay Cano while he was banned. Got a stud closer who looks lights out right now. Possibly on his way to being an all time great closer. Kelenic has over 400 AB at about a .175 avg. He’s only 22 but that’s still an atrocious batting avg. Dunn looks like a total bust. At the end of the day it may come to just paying about 60-70 mil to acquire a great closer. Cohen can live with that. Would any Mets fan undo that deal? Would the Mets in real life? I say hell no. Very happy we got Diaz as our closer, instead of having to be very very concerned about Dunn and Kelenic being busts.
Mets saved 33M of the 100M they were going to pay.
13M in 2020 due to short season
20M in 2021 due to suspension
Mets on the hook for 67M over 5 years.
Subtract the 36M in salary they traded away…
Mets net cost for Cano = 31M over 5 years
or about 6M per year
These folks love moneyball and analytics but all of sudden only can count with their fingers when there are numbers that dont fit whatever narrative they are trying to push
Mets on the hook for 20 million 2022 and 20 million for 2023 Cano not sure of your math?
That’s basically what the Mets and Evan Roberts said at the time the trade was made.
Mets acquired and All-Time great Closer in the trade with the Mariners? I thought they acquired Edwin Diaz.
Kelenic is to young to call a bust and didn’t even have to be in that deal according to later reports but Van Lunchwagen was an idiot.
I hope you feel the same about Diaz when he faces the Dodgers, Yankees and he rest.
So, it doesn’t look like any team has jumped in to sign him on his first day of availability. Shocked.
Reds, A’S, O’s or Pirates?
For the price and with all their players on the IL, it wouldn’t hurt the Minnesota Twins to sign Robinson Cano. At worst, he would be a better DH than Gary Sanchez.. Worth a try.