NY Mets: How Robinson Cano is still hurting the team

Shoo! Shoo! Go away, Robinson Cano. The New York Mets don’t need you.

Although we’ve been without Cano all 2021-year-long, the veteran second baseman is still hurting the club. How exactly can a man miles away from the organization still ultimately lead to their downfall?

Like every caper film says, “follow the money.”

Robinson Cano is still a pain in the Mets side

Cano won’t take home any of the $24 million he was supposed to make in 2021—which is a good thing. However, he’s still on schedule to get this total for two more years after the season is through.

A whopping $48 million is coming his way across the next two seasons with only $3.75 million getting paid out by the Seattle Mariners. Even Steve Cohen’s deep pockets want to puke thinking about paying him this money.

How does this affect the 2021 Mets? Minus Cano in the future, the club would have a much better shot at potentially taking on a big, ugly contract from another team to thwart off the costs of another player. For example, the Mets are probably far less likely to take on Josh Donaldson’s deal to make Jose Berrios cheaper because Cano is still around.

The Mets can’t release Cano just yet, unfortunately, even though he violated the rules. I understand it. We can’t have teams releasing players all willy-nilly. They need to serve their punishments. Plus, it’s not as if Cohen can’t still add on a whole bunch of payroll via a bad contract and then send Cano away in the winter.

The front office must already know what their plan with Cano is. The team of Cohen, Sandy Alderson, and Zack Scott have made moves with meticulous fashion. Pennywise with each deal they have done, there’s no criticizing any of the contracts they actually managed to bring to town. This could change if they were to actually bring on a Cano-esque deal if only for the sake of adding a young player in the same move.

Cano’s presence on the Mets has always led to one major problem: a lack of flexibility. Only able to play second base and possibly first, he doesn’t have any versatility whatsoever. This was especially problematic given the existence of Jeff McNeil; a second baseman.

The dollars are much harder to navigate around. We can’t simply pay him in Japanese Yen then claim his salary shouldn’t affect the luxury tax. There’s no navigating around this expensive problem.

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Every move the Mets make, the future has been front of mind. It’s the reason why they aren’t dumping all of their best prospects in deals for veterans. Cano may not have much of a future with the organization but even as he serves his suspension this year, he could have a say in what the team does at the trade deadline which then leads to winning it all or coming up short.