San Francisco Giants: Does Robinson Cano Make Sense?

With news that the Seattle Mariners are shopping Robinson Cano, we’ll look at if the second baseman make sense for the San Francisco Giants.

The San Francisco Giants obviously have a lot of work to do this offseason to contend in 2019, but Robinson Cano could make up for a lot of those holes.

Cano is halfway through a 10-year $240 million contract that he signed with the Mariners back in 2014.

For those who don’t feel like doing math, that means he’s owed $24 million over the next five seasons, which will take him till his age 40 season.

I’ve already been hard on the Giants for signing or trading for aging players in bad contracts, and Cano would certainly add to that list.

However, Cano may be a player that it’s actually worth taking the risk on — at the right price, of course.

He has yet to show any decline in his game hitting .280 or better in his five years with Seattle, including seasons of 21, 39, and 23 home runs.

Last season was one to forget for Cano as he battled through injuries and an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance.

He came back in August and finished the season strong hitting over .300 with 10 home runs in just 80 games over the course of the season.

There are several reasons why this deal would make sense for Cano.

First, it would give them the opportunity to make a major upgrade at second base.

Second, it would allow the Giants to trade Joe Panik and get a solid prospect in return. It’s pretty clear to me at this point that Panik needs a fresh start elsewhere.

Third, it is a deal that probably wouldn’t require the Giants to give up a big prospect as this should be more about moving salary.

The only negative is that this would be another aging player with a huge contract, even if the Mariners throw some money into a deal. But that is a big negative as the Giants have a lot of holes.

It’s possibly the Giants could try to push off a big contract back to the Mariners in the deal — maybe Jeff Samardzija.?

I think a deal could work for Can and the San Francisco Giants, but it still seems unlikely.