Robinson Cano Wants ARod Money

According to ESPN.com's Wallace Matthews, Robinson Cano is seeking a deal worth $305 million over 10 years. A number that would match the total value of Alex Rodriguez's contract, should ARod reach all his incentives.

"I'm going to get PAID."

At the time of Rodriguez's recent ten-year contract, which was signed in December of 2007, his career batting line was .306/.389/.578, while he averaged 37 home runs a season. On top of that, Alex was coming off of a season in which he batted .314/.422/.645, hit 54 home runs, and won the American League Most Valuable Player award.

As of today, Cano's career batting line is .309/.355/.505, while averaging 23 home runs a season. This season Robbie has batted .315/.384/.519, and hit 27 home runs. For the record, Cano has never finished better than 4th in MVP voting, and is unlikely to win the award this season.

So I think it's safe to say that Cano is not going to get "ARod money". That doesn't mean he's not in line for a very nice payday, though. In fact, Robinson will easily be the highest paid second baseman of all-time, a title that is currently held by Ian Kinsler, who is making $75 million over 5 years (Dustin Pedrioa will make $110 over 8 years).

Matthews went on to say that Cano will take the largest contract offered to him, regardless of the team it comes from. Something that could really drive up the price on the Yankees, seeing as how the Rangers (Kinsler), Red Sox (Pedroia), Cardinals (Carpenter), and Rays (Zobrist) may be the only teams that wouldn't care to add Robbie to their lineup.

Honestly, I don't pay much attention to what a player or his representatives say regarding a new contract. I believe it's simply a negotiating thing. I mean, he's not going to say "Yankees or bust", because that would tell the Yankees that they can low-ball him. Like anybody else in his position, Cano has to make the Yankees believe they are in competition with every other team, and therefore have to give him a better offer.

I've been thinking about a contract for Robinson worth $175 million over 7 years ($25 million a season). I don't know what the Yankees themselves are thinking of offering the five-time All Star, and best hitter on the team, but the final offer may be more like $216 million over 8 years ($27 million a season).

It seems like I've said this about a hundred times in the past couple of weeks, but it's so true... this is going to be a very interesting offseason.