Robinson Cano has agreed in principle to a 10 year/$240 million contract with the Seattle Mariners. Here are my initial thoughts:
The Mariners made a great decision. They needed to do something and they needed to do something big. This move immediately gives them some serious pop in the middle of their order and a guy to pair as the offensive face of the franchise alongside King Felix. The Mariners aren’t there yet, but they will be in the next couple of seasons. They have a lot of young talent, and Felix Hernandez locked up long term with Taijuan Walker on the way. Cano isn’t going to guide them to the AL West title in 2014 but he might in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Analysts have been saying for months that the Mariners would need to overpay for any big ticket free agents to come up to the Great Northwest and that they’d be willing to do so, and that’s exactly what happened here. Ten years is too long for a 31 year old middle infielder and $240 million is waaayyyy to much (how’d that Pujols deal work out?) but in today’s reality, it’s still not a bad deal. The Mariners saw an opening and they took it. A savvy and splashy move on their part. One done with the medium term success of the franchise in mind more so than long or short, something that’s not all that common.
A underrated part of this deal is the flexibility it gives Seattle. They have 2 young up and coming middle infielders in Nick Franklin and Brad Miller, not to mention Dustin Ackely. Now, at least one of those guys is expendable. Seattle could move one of their young middle infielders for an outfielder with some pop. If they want to go big, how about Walker and one of the infielders to St. Louis for Oscar Taveras? How’s that for a blockbuster?
For the Yankees, this hurts. It’s a body blow, not a knockout punch but it hurts. Yankee fans have been steeling themselves for Cano’s departure for about 2 weeks now, but it’s still a fairly upsetting development. Aside from the fact that big name free agents simply don’t leave the Yankees, Cano was everyone’s favorite player! Now who are people supposed to root for, Ellsbury???
On the baseball side of things, it’s not that bad. Yes, Cano is one of baseball’s best and the Yankees likely won’t get half of his production from second base in 2014, but the money the Bombers were going to give to him could still be spent very well. Rumors have the Yankees tied to Shin Soo Choo and that would be a great move. A vastly improved outfield and catcher could more than make up for Cano if they can also improve their pitching. As we saw with the Cardinals after Pujols left, the departure of a superstar can hurt more in hearts and minds than on the field.
-Max Frankel
