What Designating Robinson Cano For Assignment Signals For Mets
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NEW YORK -- The Mets designated Robinson Cano for assignment when rosters cut down from 28 to 26 players on Monday.
While it was evident that Cano's skills had declined, the team still owed him $39.6 million across this season and next, which made it difficult to envision them eating this money after just 23 games.
But the Mets have an owner with deep pockets in billionaire Steve Cohen, who is committed to winning. So when it came down to choosing between Cano, Dominic Smith, Luis Guillorme, J.D. Davis or Travis Jankowski, general manager Billy Eppler was given the flexibility to make the best baseball move, regardless of the financial implications.
“I walked through the transaction with Sandy (Alderson) and then ultimately with Steve (Cohen), and as we were kind of talking through the weekend and then yesterday a little bit before the game, I wanted to make sure everyone was understanding of what the impact was," Eppler said prior to the Mets' series opener with the Atlanta Braves on Monday.
“I passed along to him (Cohen) the recommendations of the baseball group and front office staff. I walked through some details with him (Cohen) and he said ‘make the baseball decision.'"
The Mets have a blueprint for how they want to deploy the position players on their roster this season - and Cano was no longer a part of this plan.
“Given the construction of our roster and how the playing time was going to be allocated it put us in a position where we had to make some difficult decisions,” Eppler said. "We weren’t going to have the plate appearances (for Cano) as we want to allocate them around and utilize the whole bench.”
New York is off to a strong 16-8 start to the season, and with the backing of Cohen, the team has very minimal restrictions when it comes to spending money. In this case, it was eating $37.6 million in order to keep Smith, Davis, Guillorme and Jankowski on the roster, who have all proven to be significantly more valuable than Cano this year.
Coming off a year-long suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, Cano got off to an abysmal start at the plate, slashing .195/.233/.268 with a .501 OPS, one home run and three RBIs across 41 at-bats. While the 39-year-old brought veteran leadership to the team, and was well-liked in the clubhouse, his role had been minimized to serving as a part-time DH and second baseman.
"It was emotional for all of us...but [we'll be able] to get some people in the mix more consistently that we think are deserving," manager Buck Showalter said prior to the Mets' 3-2 series opener loss to the Atlanta Braves on Monday.
Despite Cano's hefty price tag, the Mets are all-in on carrying the best 26 players on their active roster. As Cohen has said in the past, he will do whatever it takes to win. This latest move backs those words up.
Read More:
- Mets Manager Buck Showalter Receives One-Game Suspension
- Mets Designate Robinson Cano For Assignment
- Dominic Smith's Four-Hit Night Helps Mets Win Seventh Consecutive Series To Begin Season
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