Hal Steinbrenner said today that the Yankees and Robinson Cano’s new representation have communicated “several” times, and the Yankees’ managing general partner expressed his hope that the team could sign the All-Star second baseman to a long-term contract before Cano becomes eligible for free agency following this season.
“We’ve had several conversations with Brodie (Van Wagenen), the new agent, just as we did with Scott (Boras),” Steinbrenner said, upon leaving the quarterly owners’ meetings at Major League Baseball’s Manhattan headquarters. “A lot of it’s procedural. I keep saying, it’s not a process we’ll be reading about in the paper every day. If anything significant happens, everybody’s going to know, but we’re going to continue in the weeks to come to work though things and try to come to an agreement.”
Last month, Cano switched from Boras to a new agency founded by Jay-Z, which is working with Van Wagenen’s firm CAA. The Players Association has not yet authorized Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports to act as Cano’s agent, but that is likely to happen in the next few weeks.
Boras generally believes that a player’s value is best determined on the open market, whereas CAA has a history of locking up players before they reach free agency. While Steinbrenner said those factors didn’t increase his confidence in getting a deal done, he nevertheless spoke optimistically.
“I still have the faith that the player has a big say in it, and I know that Robbie wants to be here,” Steinbrenner said. “And Robbie knows that we want him to be here. We want him to end his career here. I think to me, whether I’m right or not, that plays a big part in it, regardless of who the agent is. But we’re going to continue trying to push ahead and try to get something done. We want him to be a Yankee.”
Cano and Boras turned down an offer, the precise details of which are unknown, prior to the start of the season.
The Yankees know that, should they land Cano, his very large salary would increase the difficulty of getting the team payroll under $189 million next season, which would enable the Yankees to bypass the luxury tax and set them up for a possible rebate. Steinbrenner said the Yankees’ success in the first quarter of this season, attained without many of their high-profile, high-salaried players, strengthened his resolve that general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi could succeed with a reduced payroll.
“I always believed it could work if the young players, as I’ve been saying all along, pan out and do their job,” Steinbrenner said of the payroll cut. “We still have (Michael) Pineda coming back, so well see how he does. I think he’s going to do great. But the key is going to be the young players stepping up and really making contributions like they’re doing right now.”
Girardi is working in the last year of his contract, and Steinbrenner said that, as his been his general policy (with an exception now being made for Cano), he wouldn’t address his manager’s job status until the conclusion of the season. Yet Steinbrenner is clearly satisfied with the performances of both Girardi and Cashman.
“We all have to concentrate and focus on our job right now,” Steinbrenner said. “We all have to concentrate on what’s important. There’s a long road ahead. And that’s not going to surprise Joe to hear me say that. He knows that.
“But Joe has done a great job. There’s no doubt about it. We all like Joe. We’ll all sit down and figure out what to do after the season ends, hopefully in early November.”