Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Friday, May 13, 2022
After being released by the Mets, Robinson Canó appears to have found a new home. The Padres are closing in on a Major League deal with the eight-time All-Star, sources told MLB.com on Thursday.
The move, which was first reported by MLB Network insider Jon Heyman, is not yet final, and the team has not announced the details.
The 39-year-old Canó was designated for assignment by the Mets on May 2 despite still having two years and $37.6 million left on his contract. He batted .195 with one home run and three RBIs in 12 games with New York in 2022. After being DFAed, Canó would make the veteran minimum in San Diego.
|
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. The Duke Posted: May 13, 2022 at 01:31 PM (#6076559)I was always conflicted about that rule. It seems unfair that one team can say they don't want you anymore and that you're not allowed to go out and get whatever anyone else is willing to pay you. But I assume this is to prevent unhappy players from tanking, getting released, and then getting double salary by signing with the team of their choice. Is that it?
so each week I didn't take a job, I got another check.
I realized immediately that I could:
- get a job for barely more money, and thus work for peanuts, in effect.
- get a job for the same money, and thus work for free.
- get a job for less money, and thus I would be paying to work.
In unrelated news, after 8 months of slumber, I immediately landed a new job (at higher pay). Weird how that worked out...
Except he's not working for free. He's working for the original ~$20 million he signed for. He can choose to NOT work and get the $20 million, or he can choose to work for someone else and get the $20 million, but there's no "free" involved. He's getting paid what he negotiated. That doesn't seem unfair to me at all.
I find it odd that all these weird transactions still exist. Teams purchasing contracts of players already under contract with the team ... options ... rule 5 ... minor-league free agency ... designated for assignment. I know they all still serve a purpose but seem much more convoluted than necessary.
Hosmer by the way is continuing his magical Olerudian season at 367/434/550 ... a reminder it's still crazy early.
And once he signed that deal with Seattle, Cano knew there was no "next contract" to play for at age 41 ... much less that what's motiated him the last NINE seasons was some hypothetical contract 10 years later.
DFA period was shortened to 7 days a few years ago.
#14: Thanks, I didn't know that.
And in some of these situations there might be playing-time incentives (I can't find the details of Cano's contract because he's been between teams, so not sure about him specifically).
Though I don't know how that works. If a guy getting paid mostly by his previous team has playing-time incentives, which team pays them? Could the Padres cost the Mets money just by writing Cano into the lineup? That would be amusing if also probably fairly trivial in the scheme of things.
I was sort of hoping he might be the next Steve Ontiveros. Generally pretty good those few periods when he wasn't on the DL.
No.
Why would he? He agreed to a contract. He's getting paid. He didn't have to accept the offer from the Padres, and he still would have gotten paid. The Padres pay him the pro rated minimum, and the Mets subtract that from what they owe him. It's a win-win-win.
If it's the former my next question is as follows: if the Mets owe him $20 million and the minimum is 500k, then the Mets owe $19.5 million under normal circumstances. If the giants won the bidding war and pay him $2 million, do the Mets owe $18 million or $19.5 million ?
But the way it would work is that the Mets would be on the hook for the contract less the minimum and the extra money would be treated as a signing bonus. And the commissioner's office might veto the deal as an unauthorized bonus.
The Mets owe him $18 million. Which is why that would never happen. Cano gets $20M no matter who pays him so there's no point in the Giants offering him $2 million. Means literally nothing to Cano and the Giants would be out an extra $1.5 million.
If the Giants offered him $21 million then the Mets would be off the hook and Cano would get $21 million. But if the Giants wanted him that bad, they would have claimed him.
I seem to recall that incentives turn into guarantees if the player is released. But that might not be true since there are incentives like MVP finishes and I can't imagine those would be guaranteed. Not sure how incentives work here.
EDIT: Maybe I'm thinking of options?
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main