The Robinson Cano Trade: Disaster, Irony, and Trumpets

Sometimes a funny thing happens in sports. A trade or free agent signing can end up altering a team’s future in ways no one expected. Often, the player written off as a throw-in becomes the one who actually changes everything. Sometimes signing a free agent costs a team more than just money. And just as often, the headlines right after a blockbuster deal end up looking absurd when revisited a few years later.

That unpredictability feels unique to sports. In the real world, if your 9-to-5 employer decides to “rebuild,” you don’t get shipped across the country in exchange for promising interns. You get a pink slip. But in sports, the improbable happens constantly.

One of the most formative trades in recent MLB memory checks all of those boxes. It involved a potential Hall of Famer, one of the most hyped prospects of the decade, one of the top three closers in the game, a pile of contracts, and a deal that altered the direction of at least one franchise, if not several.

Of course, we are talking about the Robinson Cano trade. A deal that sent a star second baseman across the country, changed the Mets forever, and, in a twist of fate, did so with very little thanks to Cano himself.

The Mariners’ Megadeal

This story really begins when Cano left the Yankees. After a four-year stretch where he never finished lower than sixth in MVP voting, Cano hit free agency as one of the best players in baseball. His agent, Brodie Van Wagenen, engineered a sweepstakes. The Seattle Mariners won, handing Cano a 10-year, $240 million megadeal that also made Van Wagenen a very wealthy man.

At first, the signing worked. Cano continued his trajectory, posting more than 20 WAR across his first four seasons in Seattle and making three All-Star teams. He looked like the superstar the Mariners thought they had bought.

Then, in 2018, it all fell apart. Cano was suspended for PED use and missed the second half of the season. He was 35 years old, declining, and still owed nine figures. His contract had turned from an asset into one of the ugliest liabilities in baseball.

Enter the Mets

That same year, the New York Mets hired Brodie Van Wagenen as their general manager. The move baffled many across baseball. Van Wagenen had been a CAA agent representing several Mets players, including Jacob deGrom, Yoenis Céspedes, and even Tim Tebow. He had been in the middle of negotiating a new deGrom extension when suddenly he was sitting in the GM’s chair on the other side of the table.

No one was sure what direction Van Wagenen would take the Mets. Few imagined his first major move would be trading for his former client Robinson Cano.

The Trade

The details of the negotiations remain murky, but the end result is clear. The Mariners sent Cano and 24-year-old closer Edwin Díaz to the Mets, along with $20 million to offset Cano’s contract. Díaz had just finished a season for the ages, recording the second-most saves in MLB history, earning 3.1 WAR, and finishing eighth in the Cy Young voting.

In exchange, Seattle received veterans Jay Bruce and Anthony Swarzak as salary ballast, plus two of the Mets’ top prospects: Justin Dunn, then the organization’s No. 3 prospect, and Jared Kelenic, the No. 6 overall pick in the MLB Draft just months earlier.

Rumors swirl about what other versions of the deal might have been on the table. Some say Pete Alonso was nearly included instead of Dunn, though that has never been confirmed. Regardless, the trade was seen as the Mets taking on a toxic contract in order to land an elite young closer.

Immediate Fallout

Within a year, the deal looked catastrophic for the Mets. Cano stumbled to a sub-100 OPS+, while Díaz, expected to be the best closer in baseball, imploded with a -0.6 WAR season in 2019.

Meanwhile, the prospects appeared to be thriving. Kelenic shot up prospect rankings, cracking the top 60, and Dunn posted a sub-3 ERA in limited MLB action. The consensus was clear: the Mets had mortgaged their future for a declining Cano and a broken Díaz.

The following year, things somehow got worse. Cano and Díaz rebounded during the COVID-shortened season, but Kelenic vaulted into the No. 11 spot on Baseball America’s top prospect list. By the 2020 offseason, the deal looked like an unmitigated disaster. Steve Cohen bought the Mets, Van Wagenen was fired, and Cano was suspended for the entire 2021 season.

Cano would appear in only 12 more games for the Mets. Meanwhile, Kelenic rose all the way to the No. 6 prospect in the sport. On paper, the Mets looked like they had given away the future for a contract albatross.

The Twist

Here’s the irony. Despite all of that – Cano’s suspension, his decline, Van Wagenen’s firing, the lost prospects – the Mets actually managed to come out ahead.

Cano’s career cratered. From his first 11 seasons, he had compiled 62 WAR. Over his final six, he added barely six more. He finished with 68.4 WAR and a legacy marred by PED suspensions.

Kelenic, once hyped as a generational outfielder, became one of the biggest busts in recent memory. His power never translated, his strikeouts piled up, and he is no longer even on the Mariners. Dunn, once a promising arm, also failed to live up to expectations.

And Díaz? He became exactly what Van Wagenen had promised: the face of the Mets.

Edwin Díaz and the Trumpets

Since 2019, Díaz has posted a 2.4 ERA as the Mets’ closer, not including his playoff heroics. His walkout music, Timmy Trumpet’s “Narco,” has become one of the most iconic introductions in baseball history. His dominance has been the soundtrack to some of the most memorable moments of the Steve Cohen era.

The trade that once looked like a franchise-crippling mistake has, in retrospect, delivered the Mets their anchor. Cano was a bust, the prospects fizzled, but Díaz became the centerpiece of a new Mets identity.

Final Thoughts

Trades in sports rarely age the way we expect. At the time, the Cano deal looked like a disaster: a declining star on a bloated contract and prospects thriving elsewhere. Today, it looks like the Mets stumbled into one of the best closers in baseball, while the Mariners cashed in their chips for little return.

What was supposed to be Robinson Cano’s second act in New York ended up being Edwin Díaz’s stage. The irony is that Cano, the headliner of the deal, is the footnote. Díaz and his trumpets are the legacy.

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