As he fades further and further away from Mets’ fans collective consciousness, Robinson Cano finds himself in a situation that those same people would kill for: on the verge of a championship.
Playing for Estrellas Orientales in the Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League, the embattled 39-year-old is three wins away from delivering the club their fourth league championship. A 5-4 extra-inning win on Monday night got Estrellas off on the right foot, and Cano’s RBI single was a key moment in the game’s early going. He finished the game 1-for-4 while batting third and playing DH.
Cano entered the final series hitting .281 with 21 RBI in 26 games between the regular and postseason. While the competition in Dominican Republic won’t be nearly as stiff as MLB, any production at all is a welcome sight for the Mets, who haven’t seen him play a stateside game in nearly a year and a half.
When Cano was popped for his second performance-enhancing drug suspension after the 2020 season, many people understandably wrote him off. The overall approval rating for an aging middle infielder with multiple drug offenses is always going to be minimal. When that player is still owed $72 million over the next three years, as Cano was when he got banned for the entire 2021 campaign, that disapproval can quickly turn to anger. But the out-of-sight, out-of-mind nature of Cano’s Mets’ tenure has turned much of that anger into forgetfulness.
The massive contract attached to his name is not Cano’s fault. When he signed on the dotted line with the Mariners in 2013, his value was such that a struggling team was willing to accept his warts to re-enter contention, no matter the exorbitant cost. But fast forward to 2022 and the Mets find themselves in a similar position of trying to figure out how Cano fits into their plan — even though they are not as desperate as Seattle was eight years ago — albeit with much less shine on his superstar status.
A .281 average against lesser competition does not an MLB player make. But as the situation stands right now, it’s not hard to envision him getting 400 plate appearances for the Mets next year. He’d need the presumed addition of the National League designated hitter to become a reality — or a Jeff McNeil post-lockout trade, opening up second base. However he gets in the lineup, there’s no reason to believe he won’t keep hitting.
In 2020, he put up a .316 average, .352 on-base percentage and .544 slugging percentage. While the circumstances of that season were abnormal, and the passage of time will only make it look more and more like an outlier, numbers like that against big-league pitching are still viable. Even better, Cano was still hitting the snot out of the ball. His average exit velocity and hard-hit rate were both in the 75th percentile or better, and over a 162-game season, he would have been on pace for the seventh 25-homer season of his decorated career.
Of course, none of that will matter if he gets overmatched by MLB pitchers. The last time he saw the best pitching in the world, it also came in empty stadiums. The raucous crowds in Dominican Republic should help ease the transition back to MLB cathedrals, but if he stumbles out of the gate, one particular ballpark will become a den of nightmares for Cano.
The Mets’ faithful are not shy about voicing their distaste. Cano is already in their doghouse, and if the season does not go as planned, he’ll be an easy target. Whether it’s for poor performance, the outdated idea that he’s stealing money from the organization, or the perception that he ruined the good vibes that the front office’s recent acquisitions created, a rocky reintroduction will lead to Cano swimming in a sea of boos.
The flip side, of course, is that the sweet swinger picks up where he left off in 2020 and finally ingratiates himself to the notoriously tough crowd. Hitting is second nature for Cano, who would have a strong Hall of Fame case if not for the drug stuff. Being able to, potentially, put his glove on ice and become the first designated hitter in Mets’ history could be a godsend for the organization, which previously might have been shuddering at the thought of him turning double plays.
Even if, against all odds, the NL is not housing designated hitters when the season commences, there’s still a place for Cano on this roster. It’s a less desirable spot, for sure, but until the team identifies the cliff that McNeil fell off in 2021, there’s skepticism that he can regain his prior form. Having Cano at second base would allow Buck Showalter to use McNeil as a plug-and-play utility-man as needed, and if he starts out-hitting Cano, that’s the definition of a good problem.
Internally, the suits would gristle at the idea of a player making $24 million coming off the bench. But that situation would mean the other players in the order are hitting well enough to earn an everyday spot, theoretically thrusting the Mets into a great spot. The only worst-case scenario here is one where both McNeil and Cano are unplayable. While the worst-case scenario has a knack for finding the Mets, two career .300 hitters — we’ll round up McNeil’s .299 mark — both plunging at the same time is somewhat unlikely.
It’s important to remember that Cano is not a bad player, just a tainted one. The Mets also don’t need him to be the middle-of-the-order linchpin he was with the Yankees and Mariners. That’s the luxury that Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha afford. Add in Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor, and the lineup card probably won’t even reach Cano’s name until the sixth or seventh spot.
The Cano era certainly hasn’t played out the way the Mets hoped it would. But the reasons for that are all away from the field. On the field, he’s hit .275 with 37 doubles and 23 homers while being worth 2.2 Wins Above Replacement. The drug suspension and COVID-shortened season made it so those numbers are in a mere 156 games — essentially one season rather than the two the Mets have paid for after he forfeited his 2021 salary — but that’s water under the bridge at this point.
A healthy Robinson Cano makes the Mets a better team. The morality issues that surround him are for each fan to work out individually with themselves. Given the Mets’ recent troubles and the overwhelming desire to bring a winner to Queens, though, fans would probably forgive him if the Mets follow the same trajectory as his Dominican club.
