NY Mets Should be Serious Players for Robinson Cano ~ Andy Martino

We all know that Jeff Wilpon, Sandy Alderson and John Ricco broke bread Monday evening with Robinson Cano’s agents, Jay-Z and Brodie Van Wagenen. At the meeting, which was initiated by Cano’s camp, the Mets contingent was presented with a “Scott Boras style” dog and pony show replete with visuals designed to highlight Cano’s many positive attributes, supporting his expectation to receive a 10 year, $310 million contract.

In today’s New York Daily News, beat writer Andy Martino stated that the idea that the Mets should be actively pursuing Cano should be neither ridiculous nor a reason for wisecracks. “The Mets, who play in New York City,” he says, “should be serious players for Robinson Cano, but right now, they are not.” Martino admits that there are solid baseball arguments against signing the 31-year-old Cano, stating “Albert Pujols has nearly destroyed the Angels. Data shows that an even distribution of payroll is a better formula for winning.” Nevertheless, Martino seems to think the Mets should be serious bidders for Cano’s services.

Team officials have all but dismissed the possibility of pursuing Cano. Alderson has frequently expressed a deep aversion to extremely long term mega-contracts. At the GM meetings in Orlando, Alderson said that it would be highly unlikely that the Mets would commit $100 million or more to a free agent this year. He reiterated that statement again on Tuesday. Combined with the fact that the Mets may not be fully free of the financial constraints that have bound them over the past several years, despite saying that there is money to spend this year, it should be apparent that the Mets would not tie up so large a sum in a single ballplayer.

Still, Martino says “It shouldn’t have to be this way.” He suggests that the Mets long range player development strategy “works sell when combined with the occasional free agent overpay.” Specifically, he states “If the Mets could augment David Wright, Zack Wheeler and Bobby Parnell next year with, say, Cano, Tim Hudson (who signed with the Giants Monday but was, according to a source close to him, willing to consider the Mets) and/or Jhonny Peralta, they might have an exciting, contending team in 2014. Further, he says “That strategy would also generate buzz and back pages in the winter, and while that isn’t everything --- the Marlins and Blue Jays won the past two winters, and didn’t exactly thrive in-season -- it’s something that Mets have not enjoyed for years, and could use right now.”

The “If” at the beginning of that quote is a very big if indeed. If the Mets had unlimited funds to spend, I still wonder if those funds would be allocated to Robinson Cano, rather than filling all those holes they so badly need to fill to have a well rounded contending team.