Desperation and Euphoria: The Mariners and the Signing of Robinson Canó
10 years ago today the Mariners reached an agreement on a huge free agent signing that had Mariner fans singing from the rooftops, "Yankees, you over baby!"
It ended the way it began, with wild rumors and a blockbuster offseason move that left New Yorkers screaming in agony and Mariner fans with a promise we weren’t sure we could trust the team to keep. It was brought about by different team management, a different philosophy, a different way to rebuild a perennially losing team. But this isn’t about the end.
This is about the beginning. The rumors. The excitement. The jolt when the news broke. A day that will go down as one of—if not the most—exciting days in Seattle Mariners offseason history.
10 years ago today, the Mariners reached an agreement to sign Robinson Canó to the most expensive free-agent deal in their history.
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On December 2, 2013 Jeff Passan put hope in our hearts.
Writing about the status of free-agency contract talks between star second baseman Robinson Canó and the New York Yankees, he reported that the Yankees’ offer was still far below what Canó was seeking and they were not budging. That he could sign somewhere else was suddenly a possibility. Passan even singled out Seattle, writing that signing Canó made sense “because of a distinct need for an impact player and financial wherewithal to do so.”1
Would they dare?
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The number one song in America at the beginning of December 2013 was “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus. If it’s symbolic of anything, it’s symbolic of how Mariner fans felt about the people running the team for the last 10 years. After a disastrous 2008 season, the Mariners hired Jack Zduriencik as General Manager. It seemed like a great move, a way to right the sinking ship the previous GM, Bill Bavasi, had torpedoed during his reign. Zduriencik built his reputation using the draft to rebuild and found success in Milwaukee.
Importantly to Seattle fans, he was a professed adherent of sabermetrics, combining the new advanced statistics with traditional scouting. He thoroughly impressed Seattle’s baseball people and beat writers and his promise of 2-3 years to right the ship was tantalizing.
It was left to Dave Boling of The News Tribune to ask the question we were all kicking around, “If he’s so good, why does Zduriencik want this job?”2
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On December 3rd, ESPN reported the Mariners were in hot pursuit of Canó. Zduriencik played it cool, saying, “We’ve talked to everybody. There’s not a free agent we haven’t talked to.” In the same article, ESPN quoted sources saying the Mariners were “desperate for hitting and desperate to put people in the ballpark.”3
Desperate teams offer desperate contracts.
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In early April 2013, Shawn Carter, the rapper known as Jay-Z, announced he was founding Roc Nation Sports, a collaboration between his full-service entertainment industry business with the sports agency, Creative Artists Agency, to represent athletes His first client was Robinson Canó, who was previously represented by Scott Boras. Jay-Z celebrated the high-profile signing by releasing a song that summer called “Crown”, in which he raps, “Scott Boras, you over baby!/Robinson Canó, you coming with me.”
Canó’s move was widely interpreted as a sign that he wanted a quick in-season extension with the Yankees. Boras was a free agency shark and always pursued the thrill of open bidding waters. But the season ended and Canó remained unsigned. The Yankees offered six or seven years at $144 - $160 million while Canó sought 10 years and $300 million. Although the Yankees were vocal about cutting payroll to avoid paying the luxury tax, it was still widely assumed they would retain him.
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On December 4th, members of Canó’s team met with the Mariners. A source in the New York Post revealed, “The meeting went very well.”4
A meeting between the Mariners—the SEATTLE Mariners—and Canó—ROBINSON Canó—went well?
Was it okay to get a little giddy at the small little tiny iota of a chance?
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While Jay-Z was expanding his entertainment empire into the sports world, the Mariners were expanding their money-making into cable television. In April, the club bought the majority stake in the ROOT Sports network with an agreement to televise Mariners baseball through the 2030 season.
This was a move teams were beginning to make across baseball. Regional sports networks were offering lucrative deals for the exclusive rights to broadcast a team’s games. In 2010, the Rangers signed a deal to haul in $80 million per year for 20 years and in 2011, the Angels signed a similar deal, only theirs paid out $150 million annually.
In addition, MLB signed a cable sports deal with various networks that went into effect for the 2014 season. Altogether, the deals added $12.4 billion, doubling the previous cable revenue. The money was split evenly between all 30 teams, meaning each team had an extra $413.3 million dollars for 2014.5
In March, Forbes released a ranking of the most valuable MLB teams, placing the Mariners 12th, even with their paltry cable broadcast payout of $45 million a year. The new deal with ROOT would boost their value significantly. According to Forbes, the Mariners brought in $215 million in revenue with an operating income of $12.9 million.6
The Mariners could certainly cry poor, and they had over and over again, but reality told a different story.
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On December 5th, Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Mariners had made an offer and Canó was on his way to Seattle.
Oh!
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The Mariners were a mess at the end of 2013, losing 91 games. Zdurendzick’s 2-3 years plan became a 5-7 year plan7 and Mariners sources believed he only kept his job because Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln and President Chuck Armstrong didn’t want to admit publicly, by way of firing him, that they had made a mistake hiring him.8 As Larry Stone described the situation in the Seattle Times:
Certainly, after consecutive seasons of 101, 95, 87 and 91 losses by the Mariners, this could be Zduriencik’s last opportunity to get it right. I say “could be” because I’ve learned never to underestimate the capacity for this organization to make the wrong call.9
Zduriencik was certainly feeling pressure. The Mariners expressed reluctance to raise the payroll above $100 million and had, in fact, shrunk their obligations from $99.6 million in 2009 to $84.7 million in 2013. The starting payroll base for 2014 was standing at just $38 million going into the offseason.10
It was time to make a big move.
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Later, on December 5th, Seattle Times beat writer Ryan Divish reported Jay-Z was with Canó on the plane flying to Seattle.11
Were we silly to hope the Mariners could reel in a big free agent? Were we getting our hopes up for nothing?
At the moment, however, the pursuit was FUN.
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The 2014 Mariners needed offense. Badly. Once touted prospect Dustin Ackley put up 0.7 bWAR in 2013, hitting only 4 home runs and driving in 31 runs over 113 games. Franklin Gutierrez couldn’t stay healthy. Justin Smoak, was a huge flop, slashing .238/.334/.412.
As a team the 2013 Mariners slashed .237/.306/.390.
The Mariners had had a rough go in the free agent market in recent years, unable to sign players like Prince Fielder, Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, and Torri Hunter. It wasn’t going much better on the trade front; Justin Upton invoked his no-trade clause to stay clear of the Emerald City in the 2012/2013 offseason.
But, they had retained their Ace of Aces, Félix Hernández, signing him to an extension early in 2013. It was imperative to get him some run support.
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On December 5th, the University of Washington football program hired Chris Petersen as their head coach. He left a successful stint at Boise State to replace Steve Sarkisian. The hiring of Coach Pete, as he was known, was met with a huge amount of excitement from Husky fans. Next door to the Mariners, the Seahawks were just two months away from their first Super Bowl Championship. The Seattle Sounders, who had just wrapped up their fifth season and their fifth MLS playoff appearance, played into the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League, broke the MLS attendance record yet again, and signed USMNT captain Clint Dempsey to the largest transfer deal in MLS history.
Across town, the Seattle Storm were only a few years out from their second championship, and had reached the playoffs for 10 consecutive years. The Seattle Reign FC had just concluded its inaugural season, featuring National Team stars Megan Rapinoe and Hope Solo.
The Mariners had competition from their fellow Seattle sports teams. But it also felt like a rising tide of Seattle sports. Maybe this was our time.
Maybe it was finally, FINALLY, all happening.
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As the Mariners were working on signing Robinson Canó, Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times was working on one of his investigative efforts. Former manager Eric Wedge told Baker about a number of concerning incidents involving Zduriencik. As salacious as Wedge’s stories were, the point that drew the most attention was the revelation that Zduriencik’s knowledge of advanced stats was a complete fabrication. His second-in-command in Milwaukee, Tony Blengino, told Baker that he was the mastermind behind Zduriencik’s job application package that stressed using advanced statistics.12
The dysfunctional Mariners front office must have felt like an easy target for Canó,’s team. Led by agent Brodie Van Wagenen, the Roc Nation group asserted that not only was Canó, the best free agent available, he was the best player in all of baseball. They painted him as a box office superstar, although as Jeff Passan pointed out:
It's not like Cano is the sort of marketing machine his team has portrayed him as in meetings with the Yankees and Mets. Beyond setting his price tag at more than $300 million in during-the-season negotiations, the biggest mistake thus far has been emphasizing the off-field exploits of Cano when reality says otherwise.
He didn't stem hemorrhaging ticket sales or TV ratings during the Yankees' down year. His jersey wasn't exactly jumping off shelves; it ranked 19th in sales this season – and fifth in New York, behind Mariano Rivera, Matt Harvey, Derek Jeter and David Wright.
"We're not the Brooklyn Nets," one Yankees official said. "We don't need Jay Z's marketing expertise."13
The Mariners on the other hand? They needed all the help they could get.
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Naturally, the Mariners beat writers were falling all over themselves to pry any glimmer of information out of Zduriencik about the status of the Canó, negotiations. “We’ve got a lot of dialogue going on, on a lot of fronts…we’ve touched base with many free agents,” was all he said.14
On December 5th, Mariners officials, Robinson Canó, Jay-Z, and the rest of the Roc Nation team got together.
Jay-Z must have gotten a taste of the high the made Scott Boras chase free agency so fervidly. Sure, it was nice to get a bucketload of money when your client signs a big deal. But guys like Boras don’t get where they are simply because they want money. They have to love the game too, they have to get a high so high they’ll chase it all over again.
So, Jay-Z came in and played the Scott Boras hand. 10 years, $252 million. The exact deal that Texas handed Boras and Alex Rodriguez in December 2000, ending his career in Seattle.
The Mariner contingent was not amused. The game was over.
It was fun to think the Mariners coulda been a contender. It was good to see that for all the despair and desperation, they still had some pride.
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Long-term deals weren’t appealing to teams; they could sink a team’s balance quickly. They were signed by free agents in their late 20s and early 30s knowing the end of the contract would be a difficult time for the team. The front end was when it was important to make the postseason run that would make the contract worthwhile.
Would the Mariners do that? In their own division they could look at Texas squandering the Alex Rodriguez deal in 2000, and the Josh Hamilton (5 years, $125 million) deal now. The Angels signed Albert Pujols to a 10-year $240 million deal that turned sour almost immediately, with Mike Trout’s free agency in the future. Neither the Rangers nor the Angels had a playoff appearance under those contracts.
Canó was 31 years old. He’d be in his 5th decade of life when the contract ended.
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We woke up on December 6th to a Tweet from Ken Rosenthal that got us right back on the Robinson Canó hype train.
Getting our hopes up? Again? In this economy?
We didn’t have to wonder long because an hour later:
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When it ended, Robinson Canó was 36 years old, halfway through the deal. His power numbers dropped as he traded easy home runs at Yankee Stadium for doubles and outs at Safeco Field. His numbers predictably dropped as he got a little older and dealt with injuries. He missed 80 games with a drug suspension. When it was all said and done though, he was one of the best offensive players who’d ever worn a Mariners uniform.15
He was jettisoned in a salary-dump trade with the Mets by Zduriencik’s successor, Jerry Dipoto. The trade cost the Mariners their electric closer, Edwin Díaz, but brought them an exciting prospect named Jarred Kelenic. Another GM, another rebuild.
He was a good player for the Mariners. Now, he feels like a cautionary tale, the limits of expecting one player to turn an entire team around. It doesn’t work like that. It never has. The Mariners knew this, but still told themselves, “Maybe it’ll work for us.”
The what-ifs. What if they’d pursued more bats. What if they’d traded for more starting pitching. What if they hired people who knew how to build a team. What if they’d built a team around him…
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As soon as the deal was Tweeted, the internet did what it always does when a player signs a big contract: math. Tweet after tweet shared that for the next 10 years Canó would make $45 per minute and $65,000 per day.
Baseball fandom as a whole was puzzled by the signing. The Mariners were terrible and destined to always be terrible. Was the money really worth it?
Among the responses on Twitter:
Yankee fans were furious at the news. Most of their responses were exactly what you’d expect. Even though they’re Yankee fans I don’t want to revel in their pain because we’ve been there and know what it’s like.
For Mariner fans, this was a signing we’d waited our whole lives for and Mariners Twitter was overjoyed:
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The signing was big news throughout the sports world. Newspaper columnists filled space with debating whether it was a good contract, whether they wished the team they covered had done the same or whether they were relieved their team hadn’t done something so preposterous. Television sports pundits argued and yelled about every facet of the deal. But in December 2013 none of us had any idea if it was an inspired signing or a disastrous signing.
Writing at USS Mariner, Jeff Sullivan summed it up:
We have no prayer of being able to properly understand a ten-year, $240-million contract. We’re not wired for the right perspective; we can’t balance the long-term against the short-term. Executives have the same problem. Maybe I shouldn’t say problem — perhaps natural deficiency. We’re short-term thinkers. We have to be. We want what’s immediately satisfying, and it’s worth acknowledging that by the end of the Robinson Cano contract, the people in charge won’t be the people in charge anymore. Even good executives tend not to last that long, at least below the ownership level. Who the hell can see ten years? Who the hell can see three years? Who the hell can see a month?16
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On December 12, 2013 the signing was official and the Mariners held a press conference to introduce their newest second baseman. Robinson Canó answered questions, tried on a Mariners jersey, smiled for the cameras.
Whether it was good or bad, it was done. Somehow, after all the front office dysfunction, the spurning of free agents past, and losing season after losing season, somehow Robinson Canó was a Mariner.
And for one glorious December we got to believe the Mariners were just getting started.
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/yankees-have-no-plans-to-offer-robinson-cano-a--200-million-deal-003633236.html
Boling, Dave. "If he's so good, why does Zduriencik want this job?." News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA), October 23, 2008: C01.
https://www.espn.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/10073969/seattle-mariners-emerge-major-player-robinson-cano-sweepstakes
https://nypost.com/2013/12/04/robinson-cano-had-seattle-meeting-with-mariners-source/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow
https://archive.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/172314981.html
Eaton, Nick. "Forbes: Seattle Mariners are 12th most valuable MLB team." Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA), March 27, 2013. NewsBank: Access World News. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/1454E52C70AEDC30.
Stone, Larry. "Mariners' rebuild needs a re-charge." Seattle Times, The: Blogs (WA), May 28, 2013.
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/dysfunction-at-the-top-eric-wedge-others-point-to-trouble-in-marinersrsquo-front-office/
Stone, Larry. "Let’s talk about the Mariners (really)." Seattle Times, The (WA), November 21, 2013: C2.
Stone, Larry. "Let’s talk about the Mariners (really)." Seattle Times, The (WA), November 21, 2013: C2.
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/some-more-robinson-cano-dont-you-know/
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/dysfunction-at-the-top-eric-wedge-others-point-to-trouble-in-marinersrsquo-front-office/
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/yankees-have-no-plans-to-offer-robinson-cano-a--200-million-deal-003633236.html
DUTTON, BOB. "Zduriencik mum on reported Cano push." News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA), December 5, 2013: 1.
https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2020/11/27/21721067/robinson-cano-mariners-hall-of-fame-case-seattle-baseball-mlb-suspension
http://www.ussmariner.com/2013/12/06/addressing-literally-everything-about-robinson-cano/
My favorite part of this is "Oh!" I could just about hear a sort of pleasantly surprised gasp of breath when I read that.
These winter meetings and trades stress me out so much. I desperately just try to not pay attention and love the team we have in March.
Crazy that was 10 years ago.