Yesterday, the Baseball world learned that the Yankees had made a “significant” offer to Robinson Cano’s agent, Scott Boras. Hal Steinbrenner had eluded to the fact that the Yankees were prepared to make an offer. Then Brian Cashman confirmed to members of the New York media that “a significant offer had been made. The question remains, is it significant enough to get Cano to forgo free agency and pledge his career to the pinstripes?
Scott Boras is notorious for instructing his clients to test the market and use free agency to their advantage. Since Boras usually represents the best of the best, that strategy usually works. Cano said today that he does not want to talk about the Yankees’ offer. He stated “I want to focus on the 2013 season and I don’t want my contract to become a distraction for this team.” Cano has repeatedly let on that Boras is in the driver’s seat of these talks and that he is purely focused on Baseball.
Reputable baseball journalist Jon Heyman took to twitter this morning explaining that in his experience, when a team has to tell the media they made a “significant” offer, a deal is usually not close to done. Sweeny Murti of WCBS thinks that Boras and Cano are just a few days away from calling off talks until after the season. I agree with Sweeny. I think that Cano has all the leverage and no matter what the offer was from the Yankees, it’s only a starting number. Cano is the best second baseman in the league and will command at least 8 years and at least $200 million. Do not fret Yankee fans, I think it’s still more likely that Cano stays in pinstripes but a deal won’t be reached until after the season. If a deal was close, the Yankees wouldn’t have to let their fans know that talks were ongoing. Sit tight. It’s going to get bumpy.
