SEATTLE — Even after they offered him $175 million, Robinson Cano still felt like he was the Rodney Dangerfield of the Yankees.
“I didn’t feel respect,” Cano said after officially becoming a Mariner on Thursday when he signed his 10-year, $240 million deal. “I didn’t get respect from them.”
And he insisted he wanted to remain a Yankee.
“I was hoping they would come up with a better offer,” Cano said during an interview with MLB Network. “My goal was to stay there.”
Instead, he was introduced at his new home during a press conference at Safeco Field, with Jay Z sitting just a few feet away after Jay Z’s Roc Nation agents helped secure the deal.
“I didn’t see any effort [from the Yankees],” Cano said.
Team president Randy Levine couldn’t be reached for comment, but earlier in the week he said of the Yankees’ attempt to retain Cano: “If $175 million isn’t trying hard, I don’t know what is.”
The main reason he left The Bronx, according to Cano and his agent, Brodie Van Wagenen, was the length of the deal.
“The contract is not about the money,” Cano said. “It was about the years. I wanted a contract to end my career.”
Van Wagenen echoed those sentiments.
“To sign for seven or eight years didn’t make sense because he’d have to go through this again,” said Van Wagenen, who added the first and last call during free agency was to the Yankees. “We wanted to make sure we exhausted every opportunity to return to the Yankees.”
But the Yankees were firm in not going to 10 years and have publicly soured on such lengthy contracts after watching Alex Rodriguez decline as his deal progressed.
Cano also acknowledged he had conversations with Joe Girardi about his displeasure with hitting second in the lineup, but said that did not factor into his decision.
“It’s not that I wasn’t happy, it’s just that I don’t like to hit second,” Cano said. “That was the conversation. I have a lot of respect for Joe. We won a championship together.”
And he was also reportedly not pleased the Yankees handed free agent Jacoby Ellsbury a seven-year, $153 deal — not far from what they offered him.
“That’s not my money,” Cano said. “There’s nothing I can say. They decide whatever they want to do. I’m just happy to be here.”
“I would never say anything [bad] about them. I want to leave with the good memories I have in New York. I respect my teammates and the organization. I want to be able go back and say ‘Hi’ to them. I don’t want to go into a situation when it’s ‘You say this and I say that.’ I’ve got a lot of respect for the organization. I’ll always be thankful and happy to have been there my first nine years.”
But he acknowledged it was a disappointing way to end his time with the Yankees.
“Yeah, of course,” Cano said. “But this is a business.”
Van Wagenen said Seattle and the Yankees had very different views of Cano.
“The Mariners viewed him as a game-changing talent on and off field and we didn’t necessarily get that from the Yankees,” Van Wagenen said. “They thought he was a great player, but with the timing with where they were and where his is, the value assessments didn’t match up. … The deciding factor was the respect Robinson felt here and the desire and the Mariners showed they wanted him here.”
Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik said the contract is “justified” because the value of players is going to continue to rise.
Cano said he’s ready to “turn the page.”
“I’d never been in a situation like this year, where everybody got hurt and you’d go on the field with a different lineup every day,” he said.
And as he stepped onto an elevator to head upstairs at Safeco, Cano smiled and said: “See you in New York.”