New Ownership. Different Than the Old Ownership.

Steve Cohen, getting things done and giving few craps about it.

The umptillionaire owner of the New York Mets cut veteran Robinson Canó today as rosters needed trimming from 28 to 26 players.

To review:

1. Canó came up in 2005 with the crosstown Yanks and was instantly very good. The second baseman finished 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting.
2. He remained solid throughout his 9 years in pinstripes, improving as time wore on. He won a pair of Gold Gloves and finished Top 10 in MVP votes four years in a row.
3. He became a free agent in 2013. The Mariners banked heavily on Canó, offering him $24 million a year for 10 years.
4. Two of his first three years in Seattle lived up to the bankroll. After that, his value faded (he was 34 then, after all) and he was suspended 80 games for Performance-Enhancing Drugs. In 2018, the Mariners were so desperate to dump this albatross contract that they were willing to eat $20 million of it.
5. The problem for Mets fans is that (a) that still left $100 million on the contract and that (b) the Mets were willing to bite.  Interestingly, the Mets GM at the time was Brodie Van Wagenen, who had been Canó's agent who struck the megadeal. Sounds all wrong? It was.
6. Canó has had a handful of unimpressive seasons for the Mets and was suspended for all of last year with a another PED violation.
7. He began this year with a mission to rectify all of that with a brilliant Mets season.
8. In 43 plate appearances, Canó registered a .195/.233/.268 line, meaning a .501 OPS. Bleh. His defense was even worse, according to sabermetrics. 
9. Today, he was designated for assignment.

This means that he is released from duty but will be paid the $40.5 million remaining on his contract through 2023. That's the difference between Steve Cohen and the Wilpon family. If you're overpaid dead weight, Cohen will pay you out and send you packing rather than grinning and bearing your sagging presence for even one more season.

The icing on the cake . . . Cohen sent Canó's agent an invoice for the remaining 40 mill. Because Canó's agent is once again, of course, Brodie Van Wagenen. (Worth mentioning is that Cohen had fired Van Wagenen hours after buying the team in 2020.)

Anyway, just to fuck with him and remind him of the rotten-in-Denmark deal that BVW saddled everyone in Queens with, Cohen dished out some douchery in the form of that invoice, and it made me smile.

Not as much as Canó can smile for being paid that dough to do nothing, but still. Not bad.