Robinson could be the second coming of Alex Rodriguez. These days, that is not a good thing.
Multiple media reports indicate that the free agent second baseman is headed to Seattle where the Mariners are expected to offer him a nine-year, $225 million contract.
Cano's last employers, the New York Yankees, are said to have a ceiling of $175 million for seven years, according to CBSSports.com. That offer has prompted Cano's father Jose to tell the New York Daily News, "The Yankees don't seem to want him."
The cautionary tale of A-Rod has the normally spend-happy Yankees cautious. They are awaiting word from Major League Baseball whether Rodriguez's 211-game suspension will be upheld. New York still owes him four years on his 10-year, $275 million contract that he signed in December of 2007.
Though no one in the Yankees organization is saying it publicly, they are hoping that Rodriguez is suspended in 2014 so they can avoid paying their 38-year-old third baseman with rapidly diminishing skills at least the $27.5 million they owe him for next season.
The 31-year-old Cano would be 40 when his contract would expire if he were to sign with the Mariners. CBSSports.com is reporting that the Mariners believe they have to impress Cano with their offer to get him to move to the opposite coast.
One person connected with the Mariners told CBSSports.com, "They've got to make him an offer he can't refuse."
Both contracts are worth about $25 million annually, but if Rodriguez is any indication, Cano will not be worth $25 million per year eight or nine years from now.
The Yankees seem to understand that a lot better than the Mariners.
"We would love to have him," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "Just like we took Brian McCann right now from the Braves and every other suitor because we were willing to pay a certain amount, that certainly could happen to us in the Robbie Cano sweepstakes. That's the way the process works."
It didn't used to work that way in the Bronx - until A-Rod came along.
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