Robinson Canó testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug stanozolol will not just cost the New York Mets second baseman the entire 2021 season and his $24 million annual salary,
No, as outlets including The New York Times and Sportico have pointed out, Canó’s second suspension for doping will also cost the 38-year-old, who missed 80 games in 2018 after testing positive for a banned substance while playing for the Seattle Mariners, his shot at the Hall of Fame and millions of dollars in future earnings.
Only eight second basemen in MLB history have more career hits than Canó’s 2,624, and all of them have already been enshrined in Cooperstown. Once a sure bet to make the Hall, Canó now seems like a long shot.
“Even with the one time getting caught, people question that,” Brandon Steiner, chief executive of The Steiner Agency, told FOS. “He’s already gotten caught, which takes him out of the Hall of Fame. But with the second time that just puts a fork in you.”
Failing to achieve Hall-of-Fame status may or may not be a blow to Canó’s pride, but it will certainly hit him in the wallet.
“A Cano rookie bat in good shape before his first test could have brought $4,000,” Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions in New Jersey told FOS. “After that, it dropped to $1,500. Since then, as he’s had a more productive career, it could have gone back to about half [the original price]. But now it’s going to be an all-time low. It’s horrible. It’s horrible. I feel bad for anyone who’s holding his stuff. Over a 20-year period, it’ll cost him over $5 million. But he may not care.”
And, it isn’t just Canó’s wallet that is hurting with news. Even though the Mets are off the hook for Canó’s 2021 salary, New York is still liable for the $48 million he’s due over the last two years of his deal in 2022 and 2023.
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