Mets see Cano as new leader, bank on his experience
Former Yankee knows his way around New York.
Nothing PORT ST. LUCIE, FLA. — is coincidence in a majorleague clubhouse, so the new tenant for David Wright’s corner locker at First Data Field didn’t arrive there by accident. The only person it could be was Robinson Cano, who moved in Sunday, carrying with him expectations that he never really had to shoulder during his nine years in the Bronx.
Starting at age 17, Cano was groomed to be Derek Jeter’s double-play partner, with the Yankees correctly predicting he would grow into one of the sport’s most lethal bats at the second-base position. But in nine years wearing pinstripes, a stretch that included seven playoff appearances, five division titles and one World Series title, Cano was annually surrounded by an All-Star cast, financed by baseball’s highest payrolls.
“They teach you how to be a champion from the minor leagues,” Cano said.
But Cano isn’t a twenty-something MVP candidate anymore, insulated by Alex Rodriguez to his right in the clubhouse and Jeter to his left. On these Mets, Cano — now 36 — is the superstar, no longer tucked away in a remote corner of the Pacific Northwest, but back on a stage that’s mostly familiar yet still different in some significant ways.
And one clear distinction is the need for Cano to be a compass of sorts for this team, with Wright’s captaincy vacated and a group of younger, high-upside players that didn’t have the same winning curriculum in place. Not that Cano, in his first year, can be the presence Wright was as a clubhouse spokesman during his Mets tenure. But as an eight-time All-Star himself, Cano has the stature to lead, and GM Brodie Van Wagenen didn’t pick up the back half of his former client’s 10-year, $240 million to blend in with the rest of the cast.
“Nobody is going to replace David Wright,” Cano said. “We know what he did, and sadly he had to end his career that way. I feel special that I get to have his locker. But this is a game you play as a team . ... I don’t want to be that guy.”
Cano was suspended 80 games last season after testing positive for a banned diuretic used to help mask PEDs, so who knows what pressures he was feeling a year ago, even in a smaller market like Seattle.
Back in December, when the trade was announced, Cano brushed aside the PED question by saying, “I want to focus on positive things.”