Feinsand: Dodgers will not pursue Robinson Cano

September 28, 2013 by Mike Axisa 26 Comments

Via Mark Feinsand: The Dodgers do not have interest in Robinson Cano and will not pursue him when he becomes a free agent after the season. “They’re not interested in Cano,” said Feinsand’s source flatly. Los Angeles already has a ton of money on the books in future years and must still sign Clayton Kershaw to what figures to be the richest pitching contract in history.

Cano, 30, was recently rumored to be seeking a ten-year contract worth $305M, but that’s just the big scary number every prominent free agent floats before the offseason. No one is paying him that much. The Yankees have reportedly offered a very fair seven years and $161M. The Dodgers are an obvious suitor for Cano given their need at second base and boatload of cash, so I have a hard time believing they’re not truly interested. Even if they aren’t, it would make sense to get involved just to drive up the price. The Nationals, Tigers, Mariners, Blue Jays, and heck, maybe even the Mets, could get involved.

http://www.twitter.com/mattpat11 Matt DiBari

I think a lot could change if the Dodgers get knocked out in four games.
LarryM Fl

The Yankees have to determine Cano’s value to winning games. If his demands exceed this value then its time to say goodby. We know presently he’s worth more than 15 million a year for the next 3 or 4 years. Do the Yanks pay big time for the first 3 or 4 years because 5 through 7 or 8 will be overpay for sure. My contention is to pay Robbie more than 23 million year robs the team of the ability to gather quality players to get the team in position to win a playoff birth. So we will have a Robbie Cano on the team but nothing else to support him such as a balance offense and starting pitching. IMHO he is at the line in the sand. The Yanks can not go further. They are not just gathering a marquee player.

We will know if its showtime in the Bronx if the FO overpays for Robbie or its about the benefit of the team if they gather quality players to fill a multitude of positions.

Let the other clubs overpay for his services. I think the Yankees have made a more than reasonable offer to sign him. 7/161 is a ton of money. He plays baseball for a living. Is he that much better than Pedroia?
- cano
  
  Are you ridiculous cano outshines pedroia in every category even height. he is not even comparable to cano
http://www.twitter.com/matt__harris Matt :: Sec110

7 years, $175 million is my final offer, take it or leave it.
Tipsie

(of course it’s not my $, so who really knows)

I get the sense that most of us agree that 5-$125 or 6-$150 would be acceptable. 7-$161 was the original CC contract, so the numbers sound familiar; a fair offer, especially given what the bearded runt re-upped for.

My gut tells me, though, that he’ll re-sign with NYY for 8-$200. Annoying.
entonces

“Even if they aren’t, it would make sense to get involved just to drive up the price”

Not really. Only drives up future prices for all free agents if everyone plays this game.
- KeithK
  
  Agreed. Driving up the price is really just shooting yourself in the foot. It may have some short term value if you drive up the price for a division rival but it is pretty much a bad idea in the long run.
ropeadope

Yankees offering 23M per year (7 years); Robbie looking for 30.5M per year (10 years). Let’s set aside the additional 3 years (although obviously significant) for this analysis. Difference of 7.5M per year. Appears to be a staggering gap, but if the Yankees started at 30.5M, and docked Robbie a nickle for each time he failed to hustle, you’d be right in the 23M ballpark.
- WhittakerWalt
  
  Couldn’t resist, could you?
  - ropeadope
    
    Someone had to do it, and I like working with figures.
- cano
  
  u dont need to hustle when u hit home runs
DDO

Mets aren’t signing Cano.
Bavarian Yankee

the Yanks should offer him 7/161 again. Take it or leave it. If somebody is willing to pay more – so be it.
Zack D

Dodgers must have read Ian O’Conner article and realized wooooooah this dude doesn’t run out routine ground balls so nah we don’t want him.
http://www.penuel-law.com/ Cuso

Right. And we should believe this article “just because.”
bkight13

If they told Jeter to test the market they should do the same for Cano. If there is more than 7/161m out there, they should let him take it. You don’t negotiate against yourself like they did with ARod. Like others have said, Pedroia took a lot less and pretty much set the bar.
CashmanNinja

Cano at $150-160 is more than fair. There’s absolutely no way anyone would offer anywhere past that. I’m tired of overpaying guys on the wrong side of 30. No more 10 year contracts. Hell, 7 years is pushing it. In a perfect world it’d be 5 years, but there’s no way Cano does that. 6 years is very fair because he’ll still get a ton of money. The one thing I do not want them to do is either get in a bidding war or bid against themselves. They did that with A-Rod and it looks like the dumbest move ever now (thanks a lot, Hank). Offer him a reasonable deal. If he doesn’t accept it then he can look elsewhere. Not every team is going to be in the market for a 2nd baseman who wants a ton of money. If he were a pitcher then I could understand other teams making a run at him because there’s no such thing as too much pitching, but a 2nd baseman…I think the Yankees plan on being smart with this and I hope they are.
Chris

“Even if they aren’t, it would make sense to get involved just to drive up the price.”

I know this goes on as we have heard Cash and Theo admit to it. However I think this comment is a little ignorant, just seems like you are making it to fill up the column a little more and give you more to write about in the coming months in regards to Cano.
Ultimately, GM’s are going to figure out that giving guys like Hunter Pence (rumored 5 years 90 million)is ridiculous and driving up the price on someone you are not interested in does not do teams nor the league any good in the long run.
JGYank

The Dodgers already have a bunch of huge contracts and probably can’t afford much more. Remember they are going to have pay Kershaw big money soon. I doubt they are going to let the best pitcher in the league walk. So it makes sense they aren’t going after Cano so they don’t add another big contract at a position where most teams don’t get much production from anyway.
- JGYank
  
  Also check out these numbers from BR:
  
  Player A: career: .302/.382/.507 WAR: 46.7 (in 10 years) 2010-2013: .290/.372/.489 WAR: 17.5
  
  Player B: career: .309/.355/.504 WAR: 45.1 (in 9 years) 2010-2013: .312/.373/.533 WAR: 29.7
  
  Player C: career: .302/.369/.454 WAR: 38.0 (in 8 years) 2010-2013: .297/.369/.452 WAR: 22.4
  
  Player A got a $138M/8 yr. extension ($17.25 AAV) and Player C got a $110/8 yr. extension (13.75 AAV)
  
  Player A = Wright Player B: Cano Player C: Pedroia All are 30 years old right now.
  
  Cano has been the best recently so he should be paid the most. But Wright probably has the best career numbers and plays in a pitcher friendly park. Cano will sign his deal a year after Wright did and I’ll guess about half a year after Pedroia so since the other two got 8 years around a year before Cano signed I’ll give Cano one less (7) just to be safe. So 7 years max. Wright and Pedroia took discounts though. So let’s just assume they took $5M discounts per year. Add the $5M to each contract’s AAV and then average them and we get $20.5M AAV. But Cano is better recently and has about 10 more WAR in the last 4 years than them which is 2.5 WAR a year. If 1 WAR=$5M then he should get about $12.5M more per year but I’ll cut it down to $4M more per year. So that’s $24.5M AAV over 7 years and that yields $171.5M. So 171.5/7 is around what he deserves. Looks like the Yanks made a good offer to me.
  - Notthisagain
    
    Check your math
Hornets686

I’d say sign:

Robinson Cano to 5/125
Matt Garza 5/60
Josh Johnson 5/60

And sign C Dioner Navarro, SP/RP Phil Hughes, SS Brendan Ryan, Util Mark Reynolds

Trade for Chase Headley
- Zack D
  
  Your giving Josh Johnson 60m? Really?
Cool Lester Smooth

Give Robbie whatever he wants. If anyone outbids us, though, I hope it’s the Nats.

Robbie Cano playing 2B=>more games that Bryce Harper plays in.
Dan

Just a thought but i think the chicago cubs could be a player for Cano? If he dosent resign with the Yankees thats the team id love to see Cano player for
John

totally agree with Dan. think the Cubs could be a very strong contender, possibly even a close 2nd to NYY. Here’s why: Theo has been busy acquiring lots of young talent and they are not all that far away from contention; he could use that fact to sell Robbie on being the key cog in helping the Cubs win their 1st World Champinship in 110 years (or whatever it is); the team/Ricketts family has tons of $; the fans would completely embrace and adore him; big media market ripe with endorsement opportunities. CHC makes a lot of sense.