Robinson Cano has agreed to 10 years/$240 mill

[Chapow]

People cry and bitch the Mariners don't spend money, then when they do, they cry and bitch it's too much and a waste. What the hell do they want? Justin Smoak batting cleanup again? Clowns like Miguel Olivo in the middle of the order? Get over yourselves. They went out and got the biggest Free Agent hitter available, give them some credit.

Yep. Some people will never be happy. Oh well.

This is a huge get for the M's and I'm stoked about it.

 

[Smelly McUgly]

Chris, fair point, but I think that we couldn't even get select FA to come here at this point. They needed to do something to get FA to think that coming here, at the worst, will get you paid. We have to get them on the damn plane.

I think it's a wobbly argument to say that the value of this contract goes beyond Cano's WAR every year, but I'm going to make it anyway.

 

[chris98251]

How many 25 year old free agents are available? Tick , tock, tick, tock......

Oh I agree they are harder to come by, but thats where scouts and GM's are suppose to earn their money, these guys in AAA waiting for a Cano to leave to be called up are the guys we want to target. We have whiffed badly in that regard. But that is what makes teams great having people that can see those players and build a sustained competitor.

 

[Uncle Si]

It cracks me up when people whine about money spent. It is market value and in this case more than market value. They needed to make this move to at least try and get the M's back to a playoff series. I am happy for M's fans.

(and... and please keep this a secret... its not OUR money... ssshhhhhh)

 

[Sports Hernia]

Great first step, need to follow it up with other good moves. Being such a long deal it will bite them in the end, but almost 10 years of pretty much self induced epic failure they pretty much painted themselves into a corner and had to make a move like this+.

The other sweet thing is it takes a superstar away from the yankers. :th2thumbs:

 

[Sports Hernia]

It cracks me up when people whine about money spent. It is market value and in this case more than market value. They needed to make this move to at least try and get the M's back to a playoff series. I am happy for M's fans.

(and... and please keep this a secret... its not OUR money... ssshhhhhh)

good point. I think folks forget that at times.

 

[chris98251]

Well it's not our money, what people get pissed about is when they can't resign good players because of over extending themselves on contracts for player that are not contributing. Cano at 39 won't be swinging the bat as well as he is now and still be tieing up salary, say we have a stud 3rd baseman and we let him go to someplace else due to money. Thats what pisses off fanbases.

 

[Smelly McUgly]

Well it's not our money, what people get pissed about is when they can't resign good players because of over extending themselves on contracts for player that are not contributing. Cano at 39 won't be swinging the bat as well as he is now and still be tieing up salary, say we have a stud 3rd baseman and we let him go to someplace else due to money. Thats what pisses off fanbases.

Exactly. I have never understood the "Well, it's not your money" argument. We care because a bad contract restricts a team's opportunities to get better down the road by taking up the budget. It's not hard to understand, folks.

 

[m0ng0]

Well it's not our money, what people get pissed about is when they can't resign good players because of over extending themselves on contracts for player that are not contributing. Cano at 39 won't be swinging the bat as well as he is now and still be tieing up salary, say we have a stud 3rd baseman and we let him go to someplace else due to money. Thats what pisses off fanbases.

Until they come up to be resigned we don't know that is the case at all, they inked Cano and are rumored to be looking at others, its almost like they have been waiting for this tv money to come through and are now opening up their wallet a little bit. Besides that we got the swiss army knife Willie Bloomquist nothing shows wanting to win more then that

 

[Blitzer88]

People cry and bitch the Mariners don't spend money, then when they do, they cry and bitch it's too much and a waste. What the hell do they want? Justin Smoak batting cleanup again? Clowns like Miguel Olivo in the middle of the order? Get over yourselves. They went out and got the biggest Free Agent hitter available, give them some credit.

Well said sir.

 

[chris98251]

Well I am not knocking the player as he is currently, am looking down the road even 4 years and beyond.

 

[akscoundrel]

I take back most of what Ive said. Hopefully this is just the first step towards a new era, in a positive way, a catalyst for the changes to come.

Obviously there are some bad years on the contract, but its a price to pay to get the ball rolling.

 

[Subzero717]

That's fine Chris but what are we supposed to do? Keep trotting Smoak and Seager out there along witj Ackley to get blown out by the Astros?

Even 5 years from now what does it matter? Baseball has no salary cap. Its not like the team will be in an Oakland Raiders situation.

 

[chris98251]

That's fine Chris but what are we supposed to do? Keep trotting Smoak and Seager out there along witj Ackley to get blown out by the Astros?

Even 5 years from now what does it matter? Baseball has no salary cap. Its not like the team will be in an Oakland Raiders situation.

It's more of the lack of evaluation we have in house, which really is the deeper issue. Talent projection and evaluation of how they not only will fit the team but physically grow into their adulthood.

Frames and muscle bulk etc. You rarely find guys that can hit homeruns consistently that are under 6 feet in our park and weigh a 180 pounds as mature adults.

We do pretty well with the defensive side and just contact guys and pitching, we fall on our face with power guys.

Whether its bat speed and power or just muscle to frame or the combination. Tito Martinez, Arod, Junior are the last guys we had that did that consistently that came from our system. Curious aspect is the all came close to the same time. We got Bones in a trade, we need more of those kinds of trades, bench guys or younger players waiting for a shot and available for ageing player on a team making a push. Rather then giving our young players to a contender for a aging vet.

As far as a cap it is a self imposed cap but still a cap. Z has to lobbie for numbers, it was parked around 120 million for a long time. High for the average really, not for whats on the field.

 

[SouthSoundHawk]

This is just going to be another one of those huge contracts that fall apart for the M's. 240 million bucks for a player that's 31 years old...sounds kind of dumb. A gamble that stirs the pot never hurts when nothing else is though, so why not.

They still need to produce more runs as LA, TEX, and OAK were all in the top 8 in runs scored (SEA was 22). They did well hitting it out of the park (ranking 2nd in home runs), they were in the bottom third of the league in total hits and batting average. I'm not sure how many walks they drew, but if they can find a way to get on base more just using bats...they could be a dangerous club and possibly even a contender. The players in Seattle are hard workers, it's a shame the owners are sort of disconnected.

Point being, they need to add another piece or two to help keep some pressure off Cano.

 

[kearly]

IMO, this has a grenade's chance of blowing up. Not because Cano is awful, career 309 hitter at Safeco. No, it's because I have an inherent mistrust of general managers who make a big splash to try and save their job. And make no mistake, Z's job is on the line.

This comes after Z went balls out for Hamilton last year and Fielder the year before that. The $240 million blows the Yankees offer out of the water- Z was desperate and didn't want to go 0 for 3 knowing this is almost certainly his final chance.

He's not done either- he's also trying to trade a bunch of good/elite prospects for David Price, and there have also been Billy Butler rumors. I like Butler and Price is a perennial Cy Young candidate that Seattle stupidly passed on in the draft a few years ago. I will say this, while Z is overpaying and that is always bad, at least he isn't targeting crappy, over-rated players.

I see this signing as being a bit like Keynesian economics, in the sense that the Mariners are spending more when some of the economic factors say they should spend less. Or to put it another way, in a rich get richer league where the crappy teams struggle to have their way in FA, it is in your long term interest to build a winner as soon as possible, even if that winning team is overpriced. Overpaying for Cano is obvious. What is less obvious is how they would likely have to overpay even for guys like Matt Garza or Corey Hart or David DeJesus. Hell, the Mariners just had to pay almost $6 million for a 36 year old Willie Bloomquist, who was terrible when he was 26.

It's a big if, but if the Mariners can buy their way to an 80+ win season next year, it won't just give Z a reprieve, it will give the team image a huge shot in the arm, not to mention added revenue and finally some ability to work some moneyball magic in free agency as well. The only question is, is Z a moneyball GM? Because the last three offseasons, he's looked a lot more like Billy Bavasi than Billy Beane.

I'd be kind of excited if they got Price. They'd have 3 Cy Young candidate pitchers in the rotation with some good prospects to fill behind them. They desperately need outfield help, but if they can manage a low-cost outfield with good defense and non-terrible bats, though could be an 80 win team no problem. But there is still a ton of work to be done, and I have no idea how they are going to fix that outfield, especially with all the resources they are putting elsewhere.

 

[dontbelikethat]

Ugh, in an article to get David Price:

It's still unclear exactly what it's going to take for one of those clubs to make this happen. But here's a pithy assessment from one interested party: "Andrew," he said, "is looking to make the Herschel Walker trade."

http://espn.go.com/mlb/wintermeetings20 ... gs-preview

Don't even follow baseball like that, but if the M's trade away Walker and more for a 2 year rental... :34853_doh:

 

[Tech Worlds]

This reeks of overspending to try and save your job.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Ugh, in an article to get David Price:

It's still unclear exactly what it's going to take for one of those clubs to make this happen. But here's a pithy assessment from one interested party: "Andrew," he said, "is looking to make the Herschel Walker trade."

http://espn.go.com/mlb/wintermeetings20 ... gs-preview

Don't even follow baseball like that, but if the M's trade away Walker and more for a 2 year rental... :34853_doh:

Yep, I wouldn't trade Walker period.

 

[Blitzer88]

Ugh, in an article to get David Price:

It's still unclear exactly what it's going to take for one of those clubs to make this happen. But here's a pithy assessment from one interested party: "Andrew," he said, "is looking to make the Herschel Walker trade."

http://espn.go.com/mlb/wintermeetings20 ... gs-preview

Don't even follow baseball like that, but if the M's trade away Walker and more for a 2 year rental... :34853_doh:

Yep, I wouldn't trade Walker period.

Yes, Walker has to be someone we don't trade. Even if it helped us get Price, I still wouldn't consider it.

I mean did the M's organization not learn anything from the Eric Bedard trade?