Citi success may help boost tainted legacy.
PORT ST. LUCIE — In an alternate universe, Robinson Cano would be at George M. Steinbrenner Field this weekend, wearing his Yankees pinstripes, watching his longtime teammate CC Sabathia announce plans for his retirement season, grinning with the knowledge he’d eventually get the legend’s send-off himself. Our universe has not dealt Cano his best hand. Yet his first appearance at First Data Field on Sunday, in Mets cap and top, did represent an opening of sorts for the tainted great. If Cano represents a crucial component for Brodie Van Wagenen’s validation, then the Mets serve just as vital a role in Cano’s redemption. “I don’t want to say for my legacy, but I will say this: I grew up in the Yankees’ system,” Cano said in a news conference. “They teach you how to be a champion from the minor leagues. To be able to win a championship, to be able to make it to the playoffs [seven] times, it’s kind of like you want to go there every year. I wasn’t able to make it in Seattle, and I know it’s not because we didn’t have the team. It’s just part of the game. But coming back here, I’m looking forward to being back in the playoffs.” Going 0-for-5 in postseason berths with the Mariners, after leaving the Yankees for a 10-year, $240 million contract that Van Wagenen, then his agent, negotiated with Seattle, ranked as only part of the baggage that Cano brought back East with him. No one will forget the 80-game suspension he served last year after testing positive for a substance banned per baseball’s collectively bargained agreement on illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
His chances for the Hall of Fame, for which he’s a statistical slam-dunk, might very well be dead now. Yet he can boost his legacy as well as his outside chance at baseball immortality by adding a meaningful Mets chapter.
“I ... have no regrets” over signing with the Mariners, Cano said Sunday.
And he made the correct call at the time. The Yankees, who never appeared particularly excited about retaining their homegrown All-Star, presented their best offer at $175 million over seven years, not even close to the M’s package and too close to the $153 million over seven years they wound up paying the human banana-peel slip that is Jacoby Ellsbury. The Mariners’ October-free streak extended despite his strong contributions, not because of anything he did wrong.
And now Cano jumps from one fran- chise plagued by baseball-operations mismanagement to another, his interests and the Mets’ new general manager Van Wagenen’s strongly aligned. If Cano continues to shake off both his age (36) and the notion that illegal PEDs made him who he is (he slashed .317/.363/.497 in 41 games and 179 plate appearances upon returning from his suspension last year), he can get himself back into October. And maybe Mets fans can make their Yankees counterparts look silly for their lack of Cano appreciation by focusing on the second baseman’s on-field grace and clubhouse leadership and appreciate that his unwillingness to run hard on automatic groundouts correlates directly to his remarkable durability.
“That’s just who he is,” Mickey Callaway said, when asked whether he expected Cano to be an important offthe-field presence. “I don’t even have to expect it. It’s just going to happen.”
As for the Hall, that’ll be a haul. First Cano would need Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens to gain induction, then his old rival Manny Ramirez and his friend and teammate Alex Rodriguez. The good news for Cano is, if he can make it through this contract, his name won’t even enter the ballot until 2029 at the earliest, which allows considerable time for enlightenment and forgiveness.
How about Cano wearing a Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque? OK, that’s probably happening only in a third universe. Nevertheless, Cano and the Mets can form a celestial partnership that would generate grins throughout Queens and beyond.