Free agent second baseman Robinson Cano has reportedly agreed to a 10-year $240 million deal Friday morning. Multiple sources reported that the negotiations had fallen off, but now multiple sources confirm that Cano will be a Mariner for the next decade.
The New York Daily News reported that the two sides negotiated on Thursday night, but when Cano's agent Jay Z tried to push Seattle to a 10-year deal for $250 million, the Mariners backed off the deal. Seattle emerged as the only team seriously threatening the New York Yankees' offer to keep the second baseman, and though reports indicated the talks soured Thursday night, the two sides were able to come to terms on Friday morning.
The report indicates that Cano, his reps and the Mariners met and Seattle was reportedly willing to offer him an eight-year $220 million deal over eight years while they were also game to up it to nine years and $225 million. Now, they've showed just how much they wanted Cano as they upped the deal to a 10-year $240 million offer, which Cano has accepted according to CBS Sports.
The New York Daily News reported that when Jay-Z upped the price to $252 million over 10 years, which is the deal Alex Rodriguez signed when he left the Mariners to join the Texas Rangers, the deal soured, however it seems as though things have turned around. The publication cited that a source familiar with the negotiations said that the Mariners chairman and CEO Howard Lincoln "exploded" when Jay Z upped the ante.
The explosion didn't last long, as the two parties came to terms.
Cano, who many speculated was using the Mariners as a ploy to get the Yankees to up their offer, has gotten the money and years that he wanted in order to join Seattle.
Multiple reports have indicated that the Yankees were set in standing by their offer that was worth around $165-170 million for seven years and that the team was willing to go as high as $175 million but will not drift into the $200 million range Seattle was offering.
A Yankees official told The Daily News that a $200 million offer from the Yankees was "never going to happen," adding, "If that's the offer and he wants to go there, he's going to be a Mariner."
The report indicates that the Yankees and Cano haven't met since their last face-to-face meeting left them far apart on what the Yankees were willing to offer and Cano was willing to accept, and general manager Brian Cashman acknowledged that even though the team would have loved to have the second baseman back, sometimes negotiations don't go that way.
"Some people wind up signing elsewhere for more money than the home club was willing to give, and other players can take discounts to stay if they have better offers, Cashman said per The Daily News. "Sometimes you find common ground and get a deal done. I can't tell you how this is going to shake out just yet. He's a great player, he's been a great Yankee, I've got nothing but good things to say about him."
Cano hit .314 with 27 homers and 107 RBIs through 160 games last year in what proved to be his final year with the Yankees.
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