"You Sold Out"

In the time I have spent on baseball message boards in the past, I have always found that I do not get along with Yankees fans. This seems unusual given I am a Yankees fan myself, but I wouldn't call the Yankees fanbase a very sensible one. Aside from all of the bandwagoners, the fanbase has a great deal of unreasonable and unappreciative fans. There are those who would run the franchise like they were playing a video game, there are those who criticize prospects who do not immediately succeed and run them out of town, then complain when we never have prospects come up through the system, and there are many who are simply never satisfied. When Robinson Cano returned to the Bronx in a Mariners uniform, he met jeers of "You sold out!" from the crowd.

Let's think about that one for a second. The Yankees fans are criticizing someone for taking more money to go to another team. Let's ignore the fact that there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and that they all would do the same thing when presented the same situation. These are the YANKEES. Have they looked at their roster. C.C. Sabathia is a sellout. Mark Teixeira is a sellout. Brian McCann is a sellout. Jacoby Ellsbury is a sellout in the worst way, leaving the rival Red Sox for the Yankees (albeit he was not exactly treated warmly by their fanbase). Go down the list of players over the years. How do the Yankees get their free agents? They throw more money their way than the next team. To criticize him, well, pot, meet kettle. No, Cano was not someone that was ever going to be the face of the franchise. Despite him being the best player on the team, he still was in Derek Jeter's shadow. People didn't like his lack of hustle, and fans grew weary of his October disappearing act. It still doesn't change his MVP caliber play year in and year out for the team that earned him the offer he got with the Seattle Mariners.

I get that fans are going to jeer opponents, but what they are doing to Cano is unfair. The guy was a great player for the Yankees, and the Yankees, quite frankly, weren't interested. Yes, he had a nice seven year offer from them, and a pretty sensible one from the team's perspective. It's hardly something that people would take as disrespectful. It's what they did after that really changed things. They offered Jacoby Ellsbury an enormous contract of a similar size and amount, and Ellsbury is not in Cano's league as a player. Center field was also not a position of huge need for the Yankees, which they had to know since they had Carlos Beltran on their radar and several outfielders already under contract. Then they offered a five year contract to a player on the downswing at the catcher position, the only real position they have promising talent in the minors at. THEN they offered a contract (including the posting fee) in the same amount of Cano's to a pitcher who has never thrown a pitch in the big leagues. What they did afterwards was a message that they didn't value Cano. No, a ten year contract for any player at that age doesn't make much sense. It's a bad contract, for sure. But so is Ellsbury's, and so is McCann's. You kind of lose credibility for making a smart decision when you follow it with two dumb ones (and those weren't the only two dumb ones, either). So put in this context, why are fans booing him when the team didn't really want him?

At the end of the day, the fanbase will do as it pleases. They pay their hard earned money to go to the games, and it's up to the players to tune them out and not let it impact them. I would have hoped for better from the fans, but I am not surprised. This is a fanbase whose opinions change as often as the wind changes direction. When people show their disgust when I say I am a Yankee fan, I can't blame them, and it's due in large part to the fact that I share the same disgust for so many of the fans of the team. He'll never read this, but for what it's worth, Mr. Cano, thanks for all the great years in pinstripes, and I wish you success with the Mariners.