Nothing says respect like $240 million.
New Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano was all smiles and beams as he explained that even with a $175 million offer coming in from the Yankees, he still felt like Rodney Dangerfield.
According to the New York Post, Cano decided to play baseball thousands of miles away from the bright lights of New York City because the Yankees simply didn’t show him enough respect.
“I didn’t feel respect,” Cano said after officially becoming a Mariner on Thursday when he signed his 10-year, $240 million deal. “I didn’t get respect from them.”
And he insisted he wanted to remain a Yankee.
“I was hoping they would come up with a better offer,” Cano said during an interview with MLB Network. “My goal was to stay there.”
Instead, he was introduced at his new home during a press conference at Safeco Field, with Jay Z sitting just a few feet away after Jay Z’s Roc Nation agents helped secure the deal.
“I didn’t see any effort [from the Yankees],” Cano said.
“The Mariners viewed him as a game-changing talent on and off field and we didn’t necessarily get that from the Yankees,” Van Wagenen said. “They thought he was a great player, but with the timing with where they were and where his is, the value assessments didn’t match up. … The deciding factor was the respect Robinson felt here and the desire and the Mariners showed they wanted him here.”
Cano says that he left the Bronx and allure of Yankess stadium because the Mariners offered him more years.
“The contract is not about the money,” Cano said. “It was about the years. I wanted a contract to end my career.”
Van Wagenen echoed those sentiments.
“To sign for seven or eight years didn’t make sense because he’d have to go through this again,” said Van Wagenen, who added the first and last call during free agency was to the Yankees. “We wanted to make sure we exhausted every opportunity to return to the Yankees.”