Is it time for a Robinson Cano/Yankees reunion? I say yes!

Two years ago around this time, the Yankees were backing up the Brinks' truck to Jacoby Ellsbury's house, while they were pleading poverty to Robinson Cano. So how has that decision worked out so far? Horribly, I say.

Since the Yankees let Cano walk, something I was furious about at the time and am still peeved over, second base has been a disaster for the Yankees, most notably with Brian Cashman's and Joe Girardi's dogged insistence on playing Stephen Drew day in and day out. It took Drew suffering a vestibular concussion for him to finally get benched towards the end of the season last year. (Speaking of which, I think something might be wrong with Cashman's brain after all that bicycling without a helmet he does that he brags about, but I digress!)

Anyhow, there's been a lot of talk about Cano lately in this town. First, there were rumors that he might be traded for Ellsbury, rumors that have heated up again recently. Then Andy Van Slyke, former first-base coach for the Seattle Mariners, gave the worst exit interview ever after getting fired. Not only did he tell the world that Clayton Kershaw wants the Dodgers to dump Yasiel Puig (that gossip apparently courtesy of his son Scott, who is on LA.) But Van Slyke also claimed that Cano was "the single worst third-place, everyday player I’ve ever seen – I’ve ever seen for the first half of a baseball season," that he "couldn’t drive home Miss Daisy if he tried," and that he "played the worst defense I’ve ever seen at second base." Hyperbole much, dude?

Van Slyke also placed the blame for the mass firing of Seattle's manager and coaches at the feet of Cano's 2015 performance. Hmmmm. I think having a new general manager might have had a little something to do with it, but what do I know?

Granted, Cano's first half numbers for last year were putrid: .251/.290/.330, with only 6 homers and 30 RBI. But his second half numbers were very good, and that's *with* playing with a double hernia: .331/.387/.540 with 15 HR and 49 RBI. His total numbers were .287/.334/.446, with 21 homers and 79 RBI.

Not a great year for Cano, true, but a heck of a lot better than Stephen Drew's 2015 .201/.381/.652 slash line, and it's also better than Ellsbury's .257/.318/.345 numbers. Plus, Ellsbury missed over 50 games with injuries.  Incidentally, Cano had a variety of health woes in 2015, yet only missed 6 games. But, but, I thought he was a slacker?

At any rate, what does it say about what the Yankees think of Ellsbury, when they benched him in this year's Wild Card game? Not very much, it appears!

The other day, John Harper of the New York Daily News wrote about Cano, and interviewed Rich Donnelly, former Mariners' third-base coach, who also lost his job this fall. He said he would defend Cano "until the end of time" and talked about how Cano played when he was sick:

“I used to get upset when I’d hear people say Robbie didn’t hustle. I’d say, ‘Hell, he shouldn’t even be in the lineup.’ Robbie would always tell everybody, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’

In that same article, Harper says that "one long-time friend who spoke to [Cano] recently says the second baseman is not happy in Seattle, especially with a new regime in charge there now, and that he’d love to somehow find his way back to New York."

I would love for Cano to find his way back to New York, too. Even if it means taking on that massive contract. And you know it will happen someday. I'd rather have it happen now, when Cano still has some productive years in him, as opposed to the end of his contract, when he is past his prime.

My friend Sully has said all along that Cano would be back one day. And he recently did a podcast talking about it, and going through the list of how many Yankees have been reunited with the team after leaving. Roger Clemens. Andy Pettitte. Alfonso Soriano. Ramiro Mendoza. Mike Stanton, etc., etc. (He even mentioned names I forgot had two tours with the Yanks, like Charlie Hayes, Homer Bush, and Brian Boehringer!) I think Sully will be proven right, but the question is when.

ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand writes today about the rumors, and gives five reasons why Cano won't be back in the Bronx. Here's No. 2:

"The Bombers have moved on. The Yankees do need a second baseman, but while they very well might add someone this winter, right now their second basemen are Rob Refsnyder and Dustin Ackley."

Oh, please. They were both better than Drew, but Cano is world's better than either of them. And last time I checked, this Yankee team needs some hitting. Do you think A-Rod and Teixeria are going to repeat what they did in 2015 in 2016? I sure don't!

Anyhow, I asked Yankee fan Facebook friends whether they wanted to see Cano back in pinstripes. Most didn't. But I do. And here's something that the Yankees may be considering: marketing purposes. This team is so devoid of stars as of late that they used A-Rod, the player they wanted to dump last winter, in their email marketing pitch for 2016 sales!

Not to mention that the Yanks now have a pennant-winning team in town to compete for ticket sales with. The Yankees drew 3.1 million last year, while the Mets drew 2.5 million. Do you think those numbers are going to change in 2016? I sure do, with the Mets going higher, and the Yanks going lower. Wouldn't putting Cano back in town not only immediately improve the Yankees, but improve ticket sales? And wouldn't that ease the financial hit of bringing him back? Just saying.

Time to bring back Robbie Cano, don't you know! Besides, it would make John Sterling happy! Doesn't that count for something?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

No! Why did it have to be Ryan Zimmerman (again!) with a walkoff against the Yankees?

Here is today's edition of "Behind the Squawkers," and it relates to last night's horror show against the Nationals. Cue flashback music. It was way back in June 2006, the first year of this blog. Squawker Jon and I had gone to Washington, D.C. to visit my brother, who lived in Arlington, Virginia then, and to watch the Yankees play the Nationals. The weekend was a bit of a nightmare, as it always has been for me whenever I have driven in the D.C. area. Between towed cars, broken-down cars, and getting horribly lost, I have had all sorts of "adventures" on the road to Washington. Finally, the last few times I visited, I gave up driving there! But I digress.

That weekend was a mess. First of all, we got lost driving in from New York that Saturday morning and trying to find RFK Stadium. We stopped at a gas station to ask for directions, but the knucklehead there never even heard of the stadium! As it turns out, we were only a few blocks away, but this was in the days before GPS on smartphones (I was still rocking a flip phone back then!) So we ended up driving to Union Station, spending $$ on parking there, and taking the Metro to the stadium.

Of course, we were late to the game. But we did get to see Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez, and Jorge Posada all hit homers in the fifth inning, giving the Yanks a 9-2 lead. We also saw Shawn Chacon get taken out of the game in the bottom of the fifth, after having been very shaky. I remember that Joe Torre seemed extremely disgusted with Chacon. I was, too!

The Nationals kept on chipping at the lead, and ended up beating the great Mariano Rivera, who made a rare eighth-inning appearance, to win the game 11-9. What a nightmare.

The Sunday Yankees-Nationals game was even worse. Chien-Ming Wang was dealing, and it at first looked good for the Yankees. They were leading, 2-1, in the bottom of the ninth. But for some reason, Joe Torre decided to keep Wang in the game, even though Wang was tiring by then. I remember being positively irate that he was keeping Wang in, when it was a disaster unfolding before our eyes. And some Nationals rookie by the name of Ryan Zimmerman hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Yankees, 3-2. And Squawker Jon gloated, of course, the whole ride back to New York. Good grief.

Back to 2015. Last night, Zimmerman hit the 10th walkoff homer of his career to beat up Andrew Miller and the Yankees in extra innings, 8-6. Not only was it nauseating to see the Zimmerman and the Nationals kill the Yankees again, but the sight of Zimmerman being drenched in chocolate syrup was pretty disgusting, too. I am not a neat freak by any means, but that really creeped me out. Zimmerman had to have smelled like something out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory after having chocolate poured onto his hair. Ick! Disgusting.

Even more nauseating was the injury Jacoby Ellsbury suffered last night. His going on the DL with a right knee sprain is not exactly a shock. I have been pleasantly surprised that he has stayed healthy in his 1 1/4  seasons as a Yankee, but he is an injury-prone player. He is also one of the players the Yankees really cannot afford to lose. Ellsbury leads the Yankees in batting average (.324), on-base percentage (.412), hits (48), runs (29), and stolen bases (14).  He is arguably the Yankees's best all-around player this season, and has the 3rd best OBP and 10th best BA in the American League this year. So losing him, even if may only be for a few weeks, is pretty devastating.

The Yankees have already lost six of their last seven games, and things have to look even more bleak. And last night's win meant that they are now tied for first place with Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, Washington now gets to share first place with...drum roll please...Squawker Jon's New York Mets. At least there is one silver lining! Heh.

Why didn't the "classy" Yankee brass show a Robinson Cano tribute video?

Not only were too many Yankee fans classless and petty and ungrateful when they booed Robinson Cano so vociferiously last night, but the Yankee front office didn't exactly cover themselves in glory either. Unlike when Jacoby Ellsbury returned to Boston and received a nice video tribute, the Yankees chose not to do the same last night for Cano.

According to David Lennon of Newsday, "a team spokesman declined to say why that decision was made." And Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York said that according to a team official, "The Yankees feel they have not done video tributes in the past when players like David Cone, Tino Martinez, Jason Giambi or David Wells have returned," so they decided not to do one here as well.

However, the Yankee brass had to realize that 1) none of those players were ever the caliber of Cano, and 2) there is the fact that Ellsbury just got that nice Red Sox tribute, which did get help him some cheers at Fenway. At any rate, for a franchise that prides itself on class, and tradition, and doing the right things, not doing a Cano video comes across as pretty small-minded and petty. And it only makes Boston, a franchise which has a sordid history of trashing players on their way out the door, look good in comparison. Sheesh.

And I am not the only one to notice this. CC Sabathia was asked last night why Cano got so many more boos than Ellsbury did. He said, regarding the Red Sox, "They showed a video." Yep.

Not that Cano would have gotten 100% cheers during that, but it would have at least showed that the team, which talks so much about pride, and tradition, and Yankee history, would have some sense to acknowledge their best player over the last half-decade, and arguably their best second baseman ever. And it would have given the non-knuckleheaded Yankee fans an opportunity to cheer, too.

I saw this picture of fans holding up this idiotic sign at the game on the Daily News' website. Sorry, Yankee fans, but we should be better than the pathetic taping of dollar bills to signs -- leave that to the fans of the smaller-market franchises, not to those of  the one with the $200+ million payroll. And last time I checked, Cano did actually help the Yankees to both the playoffs, and to a World Series ring. Also, for those who throw out words like "tradition" and "loyalty" and "pinstripe pride," they ought to at least acknowledge Cano for his great play as a Yankee. Finally, look at all of those empty seats!

* * *

Joel Sherman, a frequent target of this blog, actually had a terrific column in today's New York Post slamming the boobirds. He writes: "I almost never comment on fan behavior, unless it is dangerous. But this reaction was so particularly mob-mentality dumb it is hard to ignore."

Sherman points out that the Stadium has been so quiet over the years, but finally erupted loudly over booing Cano.

The 10,000 or so folks who endured the bad weather sounded like four or five times that much with their animus drowning out the few who were trying to offer applause and thanks for the memories. It was as loud as the Stadium has been all year, louder than some playoff games of the recent past.

He also sarcastically notes:

You know [Cano] had committed the unpardonable sin of being the Yankees’ best player (by far) for about the past half decade, never was involved in off-field trouble and was well-regarded by his teammates. That horrible, horrible man. I really can’t separate who is the bigger public nuisance, Cano or Donald Sterling.

Anyhow, the article is definitely worth reading in full. I agree with pretty much every word Sherman writes here!

Yankees signing Jacoby Ellsbury is the baseball equivalent of a payday loan

Squawker Jon called me last night to tell me that the Yankees signed Jacoby Ellsbury and he was positively gleeful when he told me that Ellsbury's contract was even more than Carl Crawford's -- $153 million over seven years!

He was the only one happy in the Subway Squawkers partnership about the signing. I, on the other hand, was more than annoyed that Brian Cashman made yet another of his dopey deals. And it is a quintessential Cashman deal, isn't it? Too many years, and too much money, for a good but injury-ridden player who was a Boston Red Sox and a Scott Boras client. Good grief. Maybe Cashman hopes to be the new "elf" in Boston fan site Surviving Grady's Ellsbury and Elf feature! (And Ellsbury is being called Obi-Wan Jacoby by Boston Dirt Dogs!)

You know, I just want to bang my head against the wall every time Brian (Fredo) Cashman and the idiot Yankee ownership decides to make a big splash like this. The thing is, none of them have ever learned a thing from past mistakes. It never occurs to any of them that the thing to do to ensure future success would be to 1) rebuild and grow their own new core of young stars, and 2) raid the Red Sox or the Cardinals or the Rays for their front office experts -- those teams seem to know what they are doing when it comes to picking young players. Instead, everybody in Yankeeland gets to keep their jobs, while deciding to mortgage the future -- again -- on a player who has arguably already peaked.

Not to mention that much of Ellsbury's value is due to his speed -- there is a reason he is a top pick in fantasy baseball. How fast do you think Jacoby will be at 35, 36, and 37, when he's still making $22 million a year? Did the Yankees not learn from A-Rod, Mark Teixeira, etc. as to what is is like when a player is on the down side of thirty, but still making big coin? Stupid question -- they NEVER learn.

At least Teixeira and A-Rod, though, had some very healthy productive years before getting old (and Tex is still only 33; he just seems really old!) Ellsbury, on the other hand, has a history of injury -- in his last four seasons, he played in 18, 158, 74, and 134 games. Yes, even in his contract year, he still missed close to 30 games due to injury. What do you think he's going to be like in three years?

I said in the headline that the Ellsbury situation is the baseball equivalent of a payday loan. Let me explain. Much like a person with a lot of credit card debt, the Yankees have a lot of money on the books in which they are paying for past purchases. But instead of taking the steps to clear out that debt, and not make any more ridiculous expenses, they are the MLB equivalent of somebody who finances a 2010 Dodge Charger with a payday loan (with interest rates through the roof) when they already have 50K in credit card debt. And when that car inevitably breaks down, they will still need to pay for it. All because they thought they would look "cool" tooling around in it.

Listen, Yankee fans -- there is a reason much of Red Sox Nation is chortling over this deal. It's not a good one!

Hall of Fame sportswriter misses big part of Red Sox injury story

New York City baseball columnist Bill Madden, winner of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Taylor Spink this summer, wrote a piece for Sunday's papers about how great a job Terry Francona is doing compared to Joe Girardi. What struck me about the article was this tidbit:

What's interesting, however, and what may have a lot to do with why the Red Sox haven't just gone away, is that [Dustin] Pedroia, [Kevin] Youkilis and all their other walking wounded didn't just go away. Rather than shipping off to Florida, home or wherever to rehab, all the injured Red Sox have remained with the club, making every trip, and in Pedroia's case, hobbling on crutches onto buses from the hotel to the ballpark....


Although no one around the Red Sox will say just how this practice of the disabled players traveling with the team came about, the close-knit clubhouse culture is something that Francona has fostered throughout his tenure in Boston. In years past, there were some notable exceptions in Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez, divas who tended to go their own way, but this particular Red Sox team is to be admired for its grit and especially its resolve to just keep hanging in there. As a unit.

Aside from the fact that I don't know how much good it does for Pedroia's healing process to have him hobbling around on crutches and traveling with the team, Madden either completely ignored, or wasn't aware of, the controversy that brewed in Red Sox Nation this summer over the injured Jacoby Ellsbury not traveling with the team for part of the season. Instead, Ellsbury rehabbed his injury at Arizona's Athletes Performance Institute for five weeks. Even though the Red Sox agreed to him doing that, it didn't prevent at least one of his teammates from calling him out over it.

Remember when Kevin Youkilis complained about Ellsbury to the Boston Globe this July? Looks like Madden didn't.

Kevin Youkilis was asked what he thought about Jacoby Ellsbury rejoining the team tonight after spending five weeks in Arizona.

"I don't know what's going on with Jacoby," he said. "I don't think any of us really know."

Was it strange for Ellsbury to be away from the team that long?

"Don't go down that road," Youkilis said. "One thing I can say is there's a lot of guys here that are hurt and supporting the team. We wish Jacoby was here supporting us, too."

And just last Sunday, a piece called "The Ellsbury Insanity" ran in the Boston Globe's magazine, chastising the media and fans for giving up on the player so soon:

The Ellsbury drama has played out across a disappointing summer for the Sox, who’ve been depleted by a wave of injuries that would have seemed excessive at an assisted living facility. While other injured players drew sympathy, the scorn for “soft” Ellsbury grew louder on talk radio, in the sports pages, and on the blogs that featured Ellsbury’s face photo-shopped onto images of women in dresses. It didn’t help when unnamed members of the Sox organization apparently raised their eyebrows about him behind the scenes, and first baseman Kevin Youkilis publicly bemoaned Ellsbury’s decision to recuperate in an Arizona training center rather than alongside his teammates in the dugout.

Quite a different picture from Madden's warm-and-fuzzy piece about how the Red Sox are all for one and one for all, eh?

What do you think? Tell us about it?