Mike's Mets - The Ballad of Robbie Cano

 

By Mike Steffanos

Robinson Cano's life is a fascinating moral story. For the 2022 Mets, the big question is, can he still hit?

As the New York Mets prepare for the season to get underway, one of the big questions lingering over the club is whether 39-year-old Robinson Cano can contribute anything of value coming back from a 1-year steroid suspension. There are still two years remaining on Cano's contract. While Seattle will be kicking in $4 million per season, the Mets are on the hook for $20 million this year and next. It's quite unlikely that Robinson Cano will play at the superstar level that would justify that kind of money, but that's really not the point. However you might feel personally about the man, there's no doubt that the most desirable outcome for the Mets would be for Cano to hit well enough to provide value as a part-time DH.

There have been some items in the local media about the morality of fans continuing to root for the twice-caught steroid cheater. For myself, I don't consider it to be all that big of a dilemma. I have rooted for the New York Mets for over 50 years, and have long come to accept the fundamental truth that the players who wear the orange and blue are — just like every other inhabitant of this planet — imperfect people. When I was young, these men were my heroes. But I grew out of the need to idolize ballplayers without losing my love for the Mets and baseball. Frankly, that feels much healthier than blindly believing that my guys are better than the other guys. I'll leave that silliness to St. Louis Cardinals fans. Nobody does it better.

In an article in the New York Post, Joel Sherman talks about how Cano's teammates and manager have accepted Robinson Cano back into the fold with open arms. Sherman suggests that there is some hypocrisy in the way that the Mets organization and Mets fans will react to Cano:

... by far the most fascinating benefit for Cano is that the Mets have wrapped him in their blue and orange embrace. Buck Showalter already is talking up Cano as a leader. His teammates are not giving him the cold shoulder, instead staying on script about second chances (or third) and forgiveness and everyone makes mistakes.

"What are we supposed to do?," Showalter said. "We’re not planning to beat up on him every day. I mean, what's the return there? He's wearing our colors."

Exactly. This is the polarizing world we live in — politically and in sports. What colors are you wearing? My guy is right, your guy is wrong — before I even know the subject. And even after, the only prism that matters is not morality or right or wrong. Just what colors are you wearing?

I understand what Sherman was saying here. There is a pervasive attitude in sports that your steroid cheater is a far worse person than my steroid cheater. But I don't believe that most Mets fans embrace Robbinson Cano's return to the team. We're just accepting it as a necessary evil.

For myself, that doesn't mean that I'm not prepared to cheer for Cano if he performs well. He's a New York Met, and when a Met does something positive in a game, I'm happy. As for the morality of it all, I look at it this way: Robinson Cano has received a stiff penalty from MLB and paid his price. As for the chance he might be tempted to use steroids again, it's up to MLB to test and catch cheaters. As a fan, I can only trust them to use state-of-the-art testing to stay ahead of ballplayers who attempt to cheat the system. If Cano elects to cheat and gets caught again, he's facing a lifetime suspension. If that happens, good riddance to the man.

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