Mets debates we would be having right now in a normal 2020 season

Can we sit Robinson Cano already?

I’m not as much of a Robinson Cano hater as most. His 2019 campaign was gravely disappointing and while I thought he was a good candidate to rebound somewhat in 2020, it wouldn’t be enough for us to avoid questioning his place in the lineup.

There are a few stages we would have gone through with Cano in 2020. First, we’d want to see him dropped in the lineup. It doesn’t matter where the Mets chose to hit him at the start of the year. There’s always a demotion somewhere.

Following that, I think we may have begun to kick and scream about why he’s still there. Jeff McNeil is a perfectly serviceable second baseman. For the next few weeks, we’re going to check in on which third basemen are available before the trade deadline.

Sadly, this is a story I expect us to live through for at least another year. Without the 2020 campaign to be the final straw for Cano, we’re probably going to need to experience this in real-time during the 2021 season—if we ever get baseball back at all.

As an aside, I’m starting to grow really tired of using that sentence.

The problem with Cano is he’s making so much money that the Mets probably will never sit him until it’s unbearable to watch. After he drops in the lineup, he’ll become more of a part-time player but the kind that starts a little more often than we want. There will be a lack of logic as to when he gets his starts. There will be a Sunday when McNeil is riding an eight-game hitting streak and he gets taken out in favor of Cano.

It’s the cold hard truth and will be ready for us to cry about when baseball comes back.