Yankees are over Robinson Cano; everyone else isn’t

Robinson Cano hasn’t played for the Yankees for five seasons, but that hasn’t stopped media outlets from dissecting his Yankee legacy, or lack thereof.

Following a game and a half’s worth of rainouts in Washington DC, the biggest news revolving around the Yankees has to do with their former All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano, and his 80-game suspension for the use of the diuretic furosemide.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com initially tweeted that Cano took the diuretic because of a high blood pressure reading during the offseason.

And although Cano was tested before and after taking the diuretic, and was deemed clean on both occasions, a subsequent investigation was conducted by MLB — hence the lengthy suspension, which includes no All-Star Game or postseason play for the career .304 hitter.

The biggest annoyance for Yankees fans is the fact that Cano hasn’t played a game in pinstripes since the conclusion of the 2013 season, yet we’re still inundated with articles asking if the Yankees made the right decision not re-signing Cano?

Or the one that genuinely made me laugh, ‘MLB wouldn’t have suspended Robinson Cano if he was still with the Yankees.’

I suppose the author of the latter forgot that Alex Rodriguez was suspended for the 2014 season, you know when he was a member of the Yanks. Or that Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, David Justice and Roger Clemens were all named in the infamous Mitchell Report.

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In the winter of 2013, the then 31-year-old Cano, signed a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Mariners. Yes, he could have gone down in Yankee lore as one of the greatest ever to wear the interlocking NY — but he, like many other professional athletes, chose financial stability over legendary status. And who are we to question that?

Someone reading this is bound to ask, but how much money is enough? My retort: would you rather have $240 million or $153 million? Both are more than one person could probably spend in a single lifetime, but a difference of $87 million is still enormous.

To this day, PED suspension or not, the only thing I’m upset about when it comes to Cano taking his talents to the Pacific Northwest is that general manager Brian Cashman used a significant portion of that money on Jacoby Ellsbury.

While I understood the reason the Yanks targeted Ellsbury in the first place, I was never onboard with the move. At least we can take solace in knowing Ellsbury’s contract is for seven years as opposed to Cano’s decade-long deal.

Cano spent nine successful years in the Bronx and made quite the impression on his teammates, as CC Sabathia and Brett Gardner recently told ESPN.

“It’s surprising because I know Robbie. But after the Ryan Braun thing, nothing surprises me,” said Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia, who was teammates with Braun in Milwaukee before the Brewers slugger tested positive for PEDs.“[The positive test] doesn’t change how I felt about him as a teammate and the way that he was to me as a young player,” Gardner said. “So unfortunate to hear that kind of news, especially somebody that you played with.”

Whether or not the masking agent Cano used does indeed tarnish his would be Hall of Fame career remains to be seen. What we do know is that Cano is now $12 million lighter in the wallet and will be unable to return to action until August 14 in Oakland. 

Next: Q&A with ESPN's Tim Kurkjian

Good, bad or indifferent, the point of this article isn’t to defend Cano like Tigers’ superstar Miguel Cabrera — or vilify him the way Astros ace Justin Verlander did.

Instead, we, fans of the Evil Empire can let our actions speak louder than our words — that we have moved on from Robinson Cano era. Now if we could only do something about Jacoby Ellsbury.