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Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano are using these playoffs to make a powerful case for avoiding a mega-long-term commitment to Cano.
Rodriguez is just now at the halfway mark of his 10-year, $275 million contract and to say he looks helpless against righties is an insult to the helpless. The Yankees don’t want to see five more minutes of this, much less five more years. He is the cautionary tale about erosion during the life of an extended deal.
Cano is supposed to be the logical heir to A-Rod as both middle-of-the-order thunder and top-of-the-pay-scale wage earner. Brian Cashman had even hinted during the season about breaking Yankees’ policy and trying to sign Cano long term before he actually reaches free agency after 2013.
But the Yankees will have pause now with Cano and also Curtis Granderson. Plus, if there was even a lingering thought of retaining free-agent-to-be Nick Swisher, that has probably evaporated, too, in yet another postseason to forget.
The foursome has been so woeful that Raul Ibanez and Russell Martin were Joe Girardi’s choices to bat 4-5 yesterday in ALCS Game 2. Still, within that failing heavyweight quartet, the biggest responsibility belongs to Cano. For he is one of the great hitters alive. Yet he somehow is hitless in his last 26 at-bats, which is the longest single-season futility streak in postseason history.
This is Robbie Cano. It would seem impossible for him to go 0-for-26 if the pitchers were throwing from 50 feet, such is the fury in his wrists and hands. We are talking about a guy talented enough to Kelly Leak the final nine games of the season (24-for-39 with 10 extra-base hits) suddenly transforming into Swisher — pick any October.
“This is not about one guy,” Cano said. “We win as a team and we lose as a team.”
It is a nice sentiment, but not the kind of socialistic negotiating ploy his agent, Scott Boras, will deploy. The Cano camp wants to accentuate that you can’t win as a team without stars like Cano. The finishing piece to make a pitch for a $20 million-plus annual, eight-to-10-year pact was for Cano to be The Man in a championship run. Instead, Cano has arguably the main culprit hastening ALCS extinction.
The Tigers won 3-0 yesterday, took both contests in The Bronx and now have their ace, Justin Verlander, on full rest for tomorrow’s Game 3 in Detroit. Gentlemen, start your no-hit pools, such is the sorry state of the Yankee offense.
The Yankees took the unseemly position that faulty umpire calls in both ALCS games contributed to defeat. That would play better if they ever acknowledged how Phil Cuzzi and Richie Garcia contributed to previous championships with putrid calls. Also, the Yankees have lost four games this postseason, all of which could have been wins — regardless of ump malfeasance — had they just delivered a timely hit or two.
The loss of Derek Jeter (fractured ankle) further undermines the offense since he was one of the few hitters producing. Girardi had hoped his struggling quartet would gain inspiration to rise in Jeter’s fall.
But A-Rod is now 0-for-18 with 12 strikeouts against righties in these playoffs, and the Yankees face the No. 1 and 2 strikeout artists in the majors this year, righties Verlander and Max Scherzer, in Games 3 and 4. Granderson is 3-for-25 in the playoffs, 1-for-12 with men on base. Swisher is 4-for-26, 0-for-7 with men on and is now at .167 (25-for-150) in his postseason career.
The Cano collapse, though, is most stunning, considering his prime-age talent, how he sizzled to finish the season and the number of righties he is being fed. Cano, an AL-best 1.108 OPS against righties during the season, is 1-for-21 off them in the playoffs, and has just two hits in total in 32 postseason at-bats.
“It’s odd, you know, because this is a really, really good hitter that is struggling right now,” Girardi said.
Cano insisted he was not buckling under the weight of being The Man. Hitting coach Kevin Long insisted many good at-bats are embedded in this horrendous stretch. Still, it is 0-for-26. Dave Winfield, in Year 1 of his 10-year Yankee contract, went 1-for-21 in the 1981 World Series, forever running afoul of George Steinbrenner and the Yankees fan base. Yet another reminder about the potential horrors of long-term union.
At this time of year, the Yankees second baseman hardly wants to be compared to Winfield and A-Rod. A case for a lucrative, extended stay as a Yankee is not abetted if the impression he leaves in October is Cano cannot.
joel.sherman@nypost.com