NOT SCOTT FREE: Backed by hard-line agent Scott Boras, second baseman Robinson Cano — set to become a free agent after next season — is said to be seeking a 10-year contract for north of $200 million, which does not easily fit the Yankees’ budget. (NY Post: Charles Wenzelberg)
Alex Rodriguez will continue to draw the most attention around the Yankees, mainly because, well, he is Alex Rodriguez, The Man Who Swallows News Cycles.
Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda, Nick Swisher, Russell Martin, Ichiro Suzuki, Raul Ibanez and likely Rafael Soriano highlight a long, important list of free agents for the Yankees to decide about.
Yet the most significant long-term issue facing the Yankees has nothing to do with A-Rod or the looming free agents. After all, the Yankees are not building their future around anyone from that group. But they must determine whether they want to make the substantial emotional and financial investment to build around Robinson Cano.
General manager Brian Cashman reiterated yesterday he will confer with owner Hal Steinbrenner about whether it is wise to break organizational policy and negotiate an extension with a player before he reaches free agency. The biggest reason to do that would be to see whether there are financial savings by acting a year early. However, players don’t fire their old agents to hire Scott Boras to give monetary breaks to their employers. They do it to hit the financial jackpot.
Whenever I have asked about his financial goals, Cano always has said he is not concentrating on that subject. Yet a few members of the team told me Cano has said he is expecting a 10-year contract at top-of-the-market dollars. In a conversation with me yesterday, Boras also did not give numbers, but it was clear he expects his client to be treated financially like one of the great players in the game.
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Boras said he anticipates the no-brainer move of the Yankees picking up Cano’s $15 million 2013 option, but he does not foresee an extension this offseason because “their normal course of action with players under contracts is to let them play it out, so I don’t think there will be urgency on their part.”
The Yankees’ urgency is in knowing that if an extension is not done by the start of spring training, Boras almost certainly would take their best player into the free-agent market for 30 teams to bid on a year from now.
Historically, Boras keeps most of his elite clients from signing early or for less than market value, but those that have, such as Jered Weaver and Carlos Gonzalez, essentially overrule and dictate they want to stay where they are. Will Cano?
He does love being a Yankee, recognizes the home Stadium plays to his strengths and his retirement life is probably enhanced most by career-long association with the Yankees.
But even if Cano wants only the Yankees, can the two sides find financial harmony? The Yankees, after all, have made it a mandate to get under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold for 2014, so they are watching every cent spent in a greater way.
I wonder if there is a meeting point at seven years at $171 million, which is just more than double the most ever previously given to a second baseman (seven years at $85 million for Chase Utley) and just a notch more annually than CC Sabathia ($24.43 million to $24.4 million) to make Cano the second-highest paid Yankee ever behind A-Rod on a per-annum basis.
Or is 10 years and/or $200 million-plus a must for Boras/Cano? Or are the Yankees looking to hold Cano to dramatically less than this?
Boras called his client “unique” and among the best handful of players in the game. Thus, if Cano can produce stats like first baseman Joey Votto while playing Gold Glove second base, then why would Cano accept anything less than the 10-year, $225 million pact Votto received from the hardly large market Reds?
Especially since Boras pointed out revenues for franchises have skyrocketed while high-end salaries have remained relatively stagnant. Boras said CBA-dictated spending limits on the draft and international signings mean large-market clubs more than ever must use payroll to differentiate themselves. He felt the Yankees would risk hundreds of millions by moving from the George Steinbrenner model of investing in star-driven championships to save pennies by comparison to get under $189 million.
He said the few teams that have revenues that exceed $400 million can easily sustain $220-plus million payrolls and should be willing to pay what he dubbed the “Goliath Tax” to operate in that unfettered fashion. He invoked George Steinbrenner in saying the Yankees were unbound in building their brand to this status and should honor The Boss’ legacy by continuing to operate in this fashion.
However, in that more financially free period, the Yankees signed A-Rod to a 10-year, $275 million deal and are watching him crumble at the midway point, which likely will temper their enthusiasm to do yet another mega-deal. These pacts have gone to either the unquestioned faces of franchises (Derek Jeter, Joe Mauer, Votto) or to 40-homer/120-RBI types (A-Rod, Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder). Cano does not fit either set exactly.
Cano turns 30 on Monday, and elite second basemen have generally not aged well. He is a hard worker, but his thick-bottomed body type does not scream longevity. He is coming off a brutal postseason (Boras rightly pointed out Cano had terrific playoffs the two previous years).
Still, these Yankees needed his offensive excellence in October more than ever, which — combined with how he was cowed during the Home Run Derby for not picking Royals hometown favorite Billy Butler and how he slumped initially when linked to steroid-tainted pal Melky Cabrera — might give the Yankees pause whether Cano can handle the scrutiny and abuse that heightens for players who sign these types of contracts. The Yankees also must wonder if they want to pass the face-of-the-franchise baton from Jeter to a player whose laid-back style, at the least, irritates a large segment of their fan base.
All of this sets the stage for, by far, the biggest long-term issue currently on the Yankees agenda.