All along, the Yankees have viewed the Mariners as their prime competition for Robinson Cano — and have expressed curiosity whether Cano would give up his Yankees legacy for a lot more bucks with such a lower-tier team.
That very dilemma appears to be coming into play for the superstar second baseman. The Mariners have shown a willingness to offer Cano a nine-year, $225 million contract, sources told The Post, confirming a CBSSports.com report. The CBS report suggests Seattle wants to stay about $50 million ahead of what it perceives the Yankees’ offer will be, recognizing it needs to pay a premium to get Cano out of The Bronx.
A source confirmed to The Post Cano arrived in Seattle on Thursday to join Jay Z and meet with Mariners management.
Seattle has been desperate for years to upgrade its subpar offense and appears ready to make a bold financial move to outdo the Yankees for Cano. The Yankees’ current offer is seven years and about $165 million. Cano’s last ask to the Yankees was a nine-year contract for about $250 million.
Seattle hasn’t posted a winning record since 2009, and its general manager Jack Zduriencik is signed just through 2014. In 2013, the Mariners finished 12th in the American League with 624 runs scored, and this was after they brought in the fences in their eternally pitcher-friendly ballpark, Safeco Field. That also represented their highest total since ’09, when they tallied 640 runs.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman said at the general managers’ and owners’ meetings, last month in Orlando, he anticipated Cano would sign with the highest bidder, and Cashman expressed he wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees were not that highest bidder. Whether Cano, who left Scott Boras for Jay Z and CAA in April, would head to a club countless elite hitters have spurned could be resolved shortly.
Asked whether the Yankees would reach a point when they would move on if they didn’t get an answer from Cano, managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said, “I think only logically, you have to say yes, and the same goes for him. At some point, he’s going to get to a point where he realizes he has to make a decision. I think that just stands to reason that’s the case.
“You’ve got a lot of guys still on the board. Winter meetings are coming up. Who can predict when a guy comes off the board?”
Asked if he expected to hear from Cano if he was close to signing with another team, Steinbrenner said, “I think that’s a question you have to ask them. I think that given the history, and given that he came up through this organization, that would be the case. These are good guys that he’s got [representing him]. I can’t answer that. Only they can. But I would think so, and hope so.”
Cashman, however, said he had no such expectation from the Cano camp. Cashman said he had met personally with Jay Z in the last month, at Jay Z’s downtown Manhattan office.
“It was nice,” Cashman said.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, “I think whenever someone enters free agency, you have to think about the possibility they may not be here. I know our club is negotiating very hard with Robinson Cano [and] has made fair offers to Robinson Cano. So I can’t tell you what’s going to happen. Robbie has been a great player here since he arrived in 2005. But I’ve always said, it takes two to tango.”
Of course, Team Cano, unhappy with the Yankees’ offers, could say the same.