Mets: Robinson Cano will go down as one of the most disliked players

Robinson Cano came to the New York Mets without much fanfare. The legacy he leaves with the franchise will put him in a unique category as one of the most disliked to suit up for the Mets.

Under different circumstances, I might feel bad for the legacy Robinson Cano will leave in Major League Baseball. Because it was his own doing, it’s hard for anyone to feel much sympathy. Whether you root for the New York Mets or any other team, Cano lost your respect this winter following his second suspension for PEDs.

We all make mistakes in life. When we get punished for them, it’s time to wise up. Don’t make that same mistake again. Don’t violate the rules, lie, or cheat. These are simple rules we learn from a young age and live our lives by. It’s the moral code within many of us.

Whatever Cano’s reasons for using PEDs a second time, he lost the respect of a lot of people in the game. His suspension is well-deserved. In Mets’ lore, he’s going to go down as one of the most disliked players in team history.

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The Amazins haven’t had a whole lot of villains. Many of the players to suit up for the club that falls into the “universal hate” category did it with their poor play on the field. Hate in sports rarely goes beyond this.

In rare cases, such as crimes or cheating, the hate shifts. Cano already came to Queens with a whole lot of people not wanting him in Queens. He was a New York Yankees scrap getting paid way too much money.

His first year with the team didn’t help much. Cano had a miserable 2019 season. Then he seemed to turn things completely around this past season. Cano looked like his old self again. He hit for average and even added some pop in his bat. It took us a few weeks after the season ended to learn this meant nothing. Cano cheated. His name has become a curse worse for Mets fans.

Past Mets villains were thought of differently. Dave Kingman didn’t get along with the media and had a curmudgeon persona. He’s one of those guys fans never really disliked, but the perception isn’t a positive one.

No one in the team’s past compares to Cano. Overpaid, underperforming, and cheating all add up to a negative feeling surrounding his name.

Since baseball started their testing for PEDs and issuing suspensions, the second player to ever get a third suspension and lifetime ban was former Mets reliever, Jenrry Mejia. He was actually reinstated a few years later but has never pitched in the big leagues since appearing with the Mets in 2015.

Mejia isn’t so much hated as he is laughed about. A young star closer in the making, he threw it all away with some stupid decisions.

Cano won’t be forgotten by Mets fans or anyone else who has followed the game over the last two decades. He will, unfortunately, have a black eye on his career. He’s not making the Hall of Fame and he’s never getting his number retired.

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He threw it all away by not learning from his first mistake. If Cano never plays another major league game again, baseball would not care.