Keidel: It's Clear Now The Yanks Did Right Thing By Letting Cano Go West
By Jason Keidel
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Despite their almost historic impotence at second base, and no matter how longingly you look at the Mariners' second baseman, the Yankees did the right thing by letting Robinson Cano go west.
The Yankees are woefully inept at the very spot they surrendered when they let Cano split for Seattle. Stephen Drew is batting .160 over the last two seasons. Jose Pirela is hitting a whopping .237. Last year, Brian Roberts didn't make the masses forget Cano, either, while hitting .237 with 5 HR and 21 RBIs.
But none of that means the Yankees should have vomited $240 million for a now 32-year-old player whose hitting is hardly commensurate to his hefty salary.
No one other than, say, Mike Trout or Bryce Harper is worth that kind of contract, and they're both about a decade younger than Cano.
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The Angels have epic, corporate indigestion after signing Albert Pujols for $240 million, only to see him shrink, shrivel and limp into the back-nine of his career. Last year, Grantland branded it the second-worst contract in baseball (only behind A-Rod's deal). Pujols is hot now, but don't let that obscure the fact that the career .300 hitter hasn't hit .300 since he signed with the Angles. And, at 35, he's still got six years and about $160 million left on his deal (according to baseball-reference.com).
Sure, the Yankees only had to hiccup money to keep Cano, and cash is the one thing the Bronx Bombers will always have in surplus. But signing old men to long contracts is part of what got the Yanks where they are today -- old, injury-prone and pretty boring.
Is A-Rod worth the money? Mark Teixeira? CC Sabathia? Even with their revivals this year, A-Rod has been an unprecedented disaster, and Teixeira hasn't played over 125 games since 2011 (and just 15 games in 2013). Sabathia can't pop a paper bag with his fastball, hasn't had a sublime season since 2012 and is plunging toward the end of his career. A-Rod, Sabathia, Teixeira and Carlos Beltran are all on Grantland's radar in their 2015 review of MLB's worst contracts.
There's all kind of empirical evidence against pouring cash on the over-30 crowd, and the Yankees are Exhibit A. Beltran is batting .233 with 4 HR and 21 RBIs. Brian McCann, set to get an MRI on his right foot, is hitting .248 with a .315 on-base percentage.
Josh Hamilton just limped off to the DL again. Even if Hamilton has dodged his demons off the diamond, the 34-year-old outfielder has played just seven games this year, and hasn't had a titanic season since he signed his $125 million deal with the Angels, who were so eager to jettison Hamilton that they are basically paying his salary for the Rangers.
And Cano is batting .244 with 2 HR and 17 RBIs. With eight years and $192 million left on his contract, would even the most jaded Yankees devotee want that kind of monetary sword hanging over the franchise?
No doubt we miss the Evil Empire in its full-throated, open-wallet eminence. But they won those rings under Joe Torre, with a fertile farm and a seasoning of seasoned free agents. Now the Yankees just don't really have an identity. And if they were playing anywhere except the emaciated AL East, they would not be in first place.
But the reload-over-rebuild days are over in the Bronx. With the wide palate of cable deals sprouting like weeds all over the nation, teams can afford to keep their young studs in the stable, rather than have the Yankees poach the best players from every team every year.
What about 2009? Well, the Yanks still had Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Cano and Andy Pettitte to top off their spending spree that offseason. And over the last 15 years, that's the only splurge that yielded a title.
So if there are cracks on the diamond, the Yankees will have to fill those chasms the old-fashioned way, through the farm system. You can't just buy a ring. And if you think of it, the Yankees never did, even when they tried.
Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonKeidel.
