Tom Brennan - WHAT WOULD BE EQUITABLE WITH ROBINSON CANO FROM HERE ON OUT?

HAPPY NORMAL TAX DEADLINE DAY!  

THE IDES OF APRIL. 

Robbie Cano tested positive some months back, this being his second PED violation. 

"Dontcha know?"  And wish you never had to know.

For that, he is suffering a pretty severe penalty, a full season's (very large) salary.

But we live in an age of "equity", is what they're telling us. 

Equity.  A word with amorphous definition.

One person's equity may not seem so equitable to the next person.

Anyway, if I am looking at it from the standpoint of Mets ownership, what would be equitable? 

Is Cano being penalized enough?

Should Cano be penalized EVEN MORE?

I think so.  Here's why:

The Mets assumed his remaining 5 years of his contract, partially subsidized by his former team, basically costing the Mets a net $100 million over the then-remaining 5 year term.

As a player ages, as Robbie is heading towards 40, the last 2 years would be expected to be the least productive, normally, no matter how much Bartolo Colon might argue otherwise.

To pay him full freight for the last two seasons, after an unanticipated and unethical PED violation, seems to me unfair.

Because, when the Mets assumed those last 5 contractual seasons, they took into account a player's likely age and/or injury-related decline.  After all, at the end of his contract, Robinson will be just turning 41 that October.  Baseball-wise, that's old.

The Mets' owners didn't, however, assume (nor should they have to even think to assume) that he'd test positive again, damaging his value and also leaving the Mets to wonder how much of his prior production (on which his contract was based) was PED-enhanced.

Solutions?

I would come up with three possibilities, in what I see as an equitable world:

1) Let an arbitration panel decide how much his final two years are worth.  If he is unhappy with their decision, he can become a free agent and work out the best (and likely very small) deal he can elsewhere.

If Cano did so, and were to (as a 2 time positive tester) negotiate a 2 year deal with another team, my guess is he would get no more than 2 years for a total of $10 million, but likely less, given his age and reputation damage.

2) Or, to keep it simple and formulaic, besides losing that one year's salary for the suspension, as he has for 2021, any player who tests positive once also gets a 10% haircut on his remaining contract.  If a player tests positive twice (as Cano has) he gets an automatic 20% haircut of his post-suspension contract.

So, instead of the Mets owing him roughly a net $20 million a year over the last two years, he only gets $16 million a year after the 20% haircut.

3) The Mets may, at the right time, try to pursue voiding his contract altogether.  Perhaps that is the fairest option of all.  I couldn't fault them for doing so.

There is precedent.  Yoenis Cespedes' contract got a very large haircut after his startled-by-wild-boar incident, so while Cano's circumstances are different, the irresponsibility factor is common to both players.  Cespedes equitably took a big financial hit, why not Cano too?

This article may seem premature, as Cano's return from suspension is not scheduled to occur until this time next year, but for the Mets, favorably resolving this matter could impact the team's future cap space, and so some sort of earlier resolution would be helpful for future years' planning.

If Cano does return without a contract reduction in 2022, the Mets will be getting back a very highly paid guy who will be 39 1/2 years of old age on opening day and not PED-enhanced.  That potentially could be ugly from a performance standpoint.

If you took a poll of Mets' fans, how many of you think would vote YES on having Cano back in April 2022 at full freight for 2 more years?  

My guess? 2%.  Cano has a large family, I am guessing, making up most of that 2%.

And 98% will vote HECK NO, DONTCHA KNOW?  WE WANT EQUITY.

Most would no doubt want Cano to go.

LAST NITE: 

Mets win 5-3 behind BRILLIANT pitching by David Peterson, which ought to really make fans smile if Cookie Carrasco is possibly only a few weeks from returning.  That rotation of deGrom, Stroman, Walker, Carrasco and Peterson looks totally killer.  Nimmo heats up - his on base % climbs from .581 to .583.  Lindor gets hits.  Dom Smith hits like Dom Smith.  And James McCann pounds out 3 hits including a HR, which fixes his stats. Oh, and the good Edwin Diaz showed up last night.

If the 1st place Mets can maintain that 5-3 pace the rest of the season, they will win 101 games.   

And, great news...Mets lead their nemesis div. rival Braves by 3 games.