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On Opening Day 2019, Robinson Cano was a driving force for the New York Mets. He homered and drove in both runs in the Mets’ 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals in D.C.
The last time Cano played for a Big Apple-based franchise, he finished fifth in American League MVP balloting. That was in 2013.
His career has taken, shall we say, a circuitous route since then.
He left the New York Yankees via free agency and signed a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Seattle Mariners in December 2013. He made three All-Star appearances and enjoyed two top-10 MVP finishes in his first four seasons with the M’s.
Then, the hammer dropped.
Cano received an 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension in May 2018. He played in 80 games for Seattle that season and was traded over the winter to the Mets, along with closer Edwin Diaz.
He arrived in Queens as damaged goods. He turned 36 in October. He wore the PED stain and the assumption a decline was nigh.
In the tiny sample of one regular-season game Thursday in the nation’s capital, Cano looked like the star of old.
Check out the no-doubt home run he launched in his first Mets at-bat against Nats ace Max Scherzer, featuring his trademark sweet swing:
That looks like the Cano who was an All-Star and picked up down-ballot MVP votes in his second big league season with the Yankees in 2006. It looks like the guy who built a Hall of Fame resume before his ignoble PED suspension.
In addition to Thursday’s dinger, Cano laced an opposite-field RBI single and made a heads-up defensive play to catch Nationals rookie Victor Robles at the plate.
“He’s probably the only guy in baseball who makes that play, and it was a no-look pass to home,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo.
“It shows the rest of the team not only how to play the game, but what winning is all about. It’s doing things that you wouldn’t normally do, whether it’s taking Scherzer back up the middle for a homer, fighting off a good pitch for an RBI or making a heads-up baseball play. That’s what it takes to win.”
Again, it’s a single game. But freshly minted Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen is smelling like a rose so far after he opted to acquire Cano and go for it in a stacked division rather than tear down the roster and rebuild.
Cano’s hard-contact rate sat at 41.5 percent in 2017 compared to a career average of 33.6 percent. He can still sting the ball.
Apply several boulder-sized grains of salt, but Cano hit .441 with a 1.086 OPS in 59 2019 exhibition at-bats.
Rich Schultz/Getty Images
Yes, the performance-enhancing drug accusations loom over his head like a dark cloud, but he wouldn’t be the first player to leave that stigma behind.
The Mets are trying to recover from two straight losing seasons after reaching the World Series as recently as 2015. They need health from their snake-bitten starting rotation, including key hurlers Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz.
Even then, they face stiff competition from the Nats, Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies in their own division, let alone Senior Circuit challengers such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers.
If Cano’s Mets debut was any indication, he will be an indispensable cog for a bona fide contender.
“He is all about winning, he is about leadership, and he is going to help us win,” Callaway said, per Mike Puma of the New York Post. “It’s been very impressive in my mind.”
On Opening Day 2019, Robinson Cano was a driving force.
That’s no assurance he will be the same up to and including Game 162, but it’s a positive indicator.
All statistics current as of Friday and courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.
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