Yankees Still Wise to Let Robinson Cano Walk Even with Their 2B Struggles
June 1, 2015 · Anthony Witrado · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
The New York Yankees were never going to go there.
No way. No how. No chance.
Having finally smartened up after being burned by gigantic, seemingly never-ending deals in its recent past, the most successful franchise in American sports history finally said no.
“They weren’t going to go there again,” a source told the New York Daily News in December 2013, the week second baseman Robinson Cano, one of Major League Baseball’s best players at the time, signed a megadeal with the Seattle Mariners worth $240 million over 10 years.
With massive nine-figure deals for CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez giving their first hints of being monumental letdowns after that 2013 season, the Yankees could not justify another $200-plus million deal that would pay a player like a superstar well beyond his prime.
Given how Cano has performed to this point in only his age-32 season, the Yankees are not regretting the decision at all as they travel to Seattle for a three-game series that starts Monday night. SportsCenter‘s Kevin Connors agrees:
Always liked Robinson Cano when he played for the #Yankees — but the guy has 1 HR this season. Safe to say the #Yanks made the right call.
— Kevin Connors (@kevconnorsespn) May 30, 2015
At the time of the contract, Cano was one of the best all-around players in baseball. He could hit for average and power. He could field. He could run. And over his last five seasons with the Yankees, he batted .314/.369/.530 with an .899 on-base plus slugging (OPS), a 138 on-base plus slugging plus (OPS-plus), and he averaged 28 home runs and 103 RBI per year.
Also, in three of his last four years with the team, Cano led the Yankees in wins above replacement (WAR) as calculated by Baseball-Reference.com.
The Yankees were not just going to let him walk without extending some kind of offer. But at seven years and up to $175 million, the Mariners dwarfed New York’s proposal, leaving Cano to sign the third-largest contract in MLB history at the time.
“Some people wind up signing elsewhere for more money than the home club was willing to give,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told the Daily News before Cano officially agreed to his deal with Seattle, but the writing was already on the wall in huge bright-colored letters.
Since Cano’s departure, Yankee second basemen, of which there have been eight, have hit .214/.267/.341 with a .608 OPS, fourth-lowest in the majors since the start of last season.
Meanwhile, Cano had a 143 OPS-plus and a 6.4 WAR in his first year in Seattle. He finished fifth in American League MVP voting, and even though he hit only 14 homers in power-suppressing Safeco Field, the first year of the deal lived up to the hype.
This season has been the polar opposite, however.
Cano goes into the Yankees series hitting .251/.295/.344 with a .639 OPS. He hit only his second home run of the season Saturday. Over his last 15 games, he has a .211/.258/.281 line with four walks. That slight output is a big reason why the Mariners are 14th out of 15 AL teams in runs scored and 12th in OPS, a spot that would be lower if not for first-year Mariner Nelson Cruz hitting 18 homers to go with a 1.051 OPS.
As for Cano’s batted-ball numbers, his fly-ball rates have dropped since becoming a Mariner, as have his line-drive rates. His percentage of hard-hit balls has also dipped in Seattle, but it is actually up this season as opposed to last—28.5 percent in 2014 and 33.5 this year.
Bad luck has also hurt Cano this season. His .290 BABIP would be his lowest since 2008, and it has not been lower than .316 (2011) in the previous six years, including .335 last year.
“I don’t know,” Cano told reporters last week when asked for the cause of his struggles. “I feel good. I’m seeing the ball. I would say I’m missing my pitches—pitches right down the middle that I’m hitting for foul balls. There are no excuses for that. I’m just struggling. Everybody goes through these things, and I’m trying to stay positive. But it’s not clicking right now. There’s no excuses for that.”
The Mariners were a hot World Series pick this season, but partly because of Cano’s season-long slump, they are two games under .500 and 6.5 out of first in the AL West.
Meanwhile, the Yankees are a game above .500—only 1.5 games ahead of Seattle—and tied for first place in the AL East. Stephen Drew has been their primary second baseman. He is hitting .157/.225/.301, was benched over the weekend and is part of the reason Yankees second basemen are dead last in the majors in Fangraphs’ WAR.
Still, the Yankees were wise not to commit more than $20 million a season into Cano’s 40s. They have enough burdensome contracts on the books. They did not need another, even if it means having an offensive black hole at second base for the foreseeable future.
No one should think Cano’s days as a threat in the batter’s box are finished, but this Yankees-Mariners series is just a reminder for everybody involved that his record-setting deal still leaves no regrets on either side.
All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Stats are courtesy of FanGraphs, unless noted otherwise.
Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.
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