Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman appeared on Mike Francesa’s show earlier this afternoon where he discussed a myriad of subjects from the catching situation to the outfield situation to the Alex Rodriguez steroid and hip injury situations – Yes, they’re all situations. He also happened to mention that the Yankees did, in fact, make a significant offer to Robinson Cano but that’s all he’d say. He didn’t go into much detail about it.
Earlier this offseason, Hal Steinbrenner said the club would be willing to consider an extension with Cano who will be a free agent after this season.
Cashman’s appearances on Francesa’s show are always fascinating to me and I apologize for not being as thorough as I was yesterday with Girardi’s appearance on the show. I was just mesmerized by Cashman’s body language and how it looked like he’d rather be in a torture chamber than be within two feet of Francesa. At least, that’s how it looked to me. Plus, as good as Francesa is at asking questions, he’s not very good at letting his guests answer those questions. He was frequently talking over Cashman who is not a very bombastic speaker to begin with and another thing about Francesa is he should really research some things before he brings them up.
Case in point: He began to talk about the outfield situation and mentioned Slade Heathcott. He had no idea when Heathcott was drafted or where he even came from. With the way Francesa made it seem, it was like Heathcott just appeared in the Yankees’ farm system out of thin air.
It was both hilarious and maddening at the same time.
Now, look, I don’t expect Francesa to know every single Yankee prospect. I sure don’t, yet, but you’d think he’d know about someone who was the Yankees’ number one draft pick a few years ago.
Anyway, it’s good to know the Yankees made an offer to Cano though with Scott Boras as his agent, anything can happen and that scares me, a lot.
This offer by the Yankees is but the opening salvo between the "Evil Empire" and the "Evil Agent". For better or worse there is plenty more to come I'm sure.
Folks are talking about the possibility of a 10-year, $200 million contract or so. You would think teams would learn their lesson about giving players that kind of deal. Especially players on the wrong side of 30. Especially middle-infielders. Especially teams like the Yankees who have dealt with that kind of albatross in the past or presently (Hiya, A-Rod!).
Cano is the best second baseman in baseball and most likely will be for the next few years. After that? Who knows? Is it worth that kind of contract to find out? I don't think so. How often do mega-year deals really work out? Jeter's 7-year deal in the 1999-2000 off-season worked out. Same can't be said of Juan Gonzalez' 8-year deal the same year.
A-Rod's contract is a mess. The jury is still out on most of the other mega-year deals. But most of them are for players in the decline portion of their careers. It's just bad business, and as much as I love Cano, it's probably something the Yankees should steer clear of. Follow the Rays/Brewers formula for extending players through their prime years.
Just because Boras WANTS Cano to get $200/10 doesn't mean anyone HAS to pay that. Even the Tigers and the Dodgers.
Agreed. But with the recent deals for Pujols, Votto, Fielder, Kemp, etc.. do you expect it to be anything significantly less than that? For an MVP-caliber middle-infielders. I don't expect anything less than 7-8 years or less than $20 million per year. Someone will pay that.
I don't expect Francesa to know everything…off the top of his head. But if he's going to bring up topics and players, he HAS to prepare ahead of time. Or at least have notes in front of him to read off. That's just sloppy.
I couldn't believe it. Well, I mean, I could but I was still amazed by it all.
Francesa is going through the motions at this point. His ratings are such that he's in no danger of being fired. There's no incentive for him to expend the energy to provide an informative show. I'm a Yankee hardcore, yet I look at these February boxscores and say to myself, "Who are these guys?" But at least I know the mid to high end prospects because I'm interested and I care. Francesa doesn't care any more and that's a shame.
I don't mind 7 and even 25 for Cano. Most contracts look a bit ugly at the tail end so you take it as the cost of doing business. Cano should be able to play 2b for a while and by the time he needs to move there will be places open for him. Of course there is lots of "shoulds" but this seems like a worth while bet.
I'd sign up for that.
So would I.
the yanks' policy of no negotiating is completely outdated and was only relevant when they were the only bidder in baseball…that is obviously no longer the case…their new policy should be to not have any long-term deal (ie more than 4 or 5 years) that takes a player past age 37…that means signing them earlier and get more value from them in their prime years before they break down…after 37, it's onesies and twosies that will likely come at a price that is much more reflective of their value (ie. ichiro – even though that should have been for one, but you get my idea)
2 things are always true in free agency…
1: you overpay when you end up in a bidding war or market system.
2: you pay for past performance instead of future performance because good players are underpaid for so many years.
The next step in big-money contracts is more annual value and less years. If Cano wants 10/200, the number that scares you is the 10. Pay more in salary so you get the guy's prime and it doesn't look ugly on the tail end.
With Cano, nobody here wants to sign up for 10, so offer 5/180 with an opt-out after
4. It's huge annual money and the guy could walk after four years and get a deal somewhere else, but letting him go a year early is better than holding on a year late and having to go through the decline. Without a salary cap, there's no benefit outside of tax savings to spread money you'll probably have to pay anyway into Cano's decline.
With all due respect I don't care what WAR calculates his value at NO player is worth $36MM per even over a 5 year period. Let's not forget at the end of the 2013 season Cano will be 31 years old. For that much money I want them to clone Babe Ruth OR Lou Gehrig in their prime. This may upset some Yankee fans but in my opinion Cano does not seem to give 100% effort all the time. If I'm the Yankees and going to commit a boatload of dollars and years to a player that player better give me 200% ALL of the time. That's just the way I feel.