I was supposed to write this article earlier last week, but I needed some extra time to really analyze the topic I was given: Does it make sense for Jay-Z and company to ask for $300 million for Robinson Cano and what impact will he have from a marketing perspective? One thing that I can tell you is that I was given this assignment almost a week before the Seattle Mariners and Cano agreed to a 10-year $240 million deal, so now we’ll have to change the original $300 million asking price down to $240 million for the sake of accuracy. Does that figure make sense though? To be honest, I would have to say that my original response lied heavily with the majority in that $240 million for that long of a time period is a joke, and that the Mariners are shooting themselves in the foot for proposing such a ludicrous deal. While I fully understand all of the factors involved: age (31), stats (.309/204/822) and ability (best all-around second baseman playing), there is a lot of negativity surrounding the future of signing anyone to such a deal which has been shown in the wake of contracts signed by Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Howard for starters. Secondly, the Mariners haven’t exactly been winners when it comes to signing free agents to multi-year, vastly inflated contracts: Chone Figgins, Adrian Beltre, Richie Sexson, Brett Boone post-2001 and especially Carlos Silva. The two most notable times thus far that the Mariners have cashed in on signing players to these kinds of deals have only come internally with Ken Griffey, Jr., Ichiro Suzuki and, so far, Felix Hernandez.

To some, Cano practically lost an empire by moving out west. Derek Jeter is on the brink of retirement and Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz even said that Cano was the “face of the franchise” for the New York Yankees. It’s very rare for a player to leave the baseball power that is the Yankees, let alone the bustling, 24-hour news factory that is New York City. Most players fight their way the Big Apple. This aspect is especially a mystery when considering the fact that Jay-Z “makes the Yankee cap more famous than a Yankee can.” What, if anything, created this? Well…

Back in April of this year Cano parted ways with super agent Scott Boras not too long after rejected a contract extension with the Yankees. In turn, Cano hired Jay-Z to be his agent. It was a move that made little-to-no sense to anyone outside of the business circle, but the Yankees felt that the move would actually help land Cano easily at season’s end. Oops! But it’s not the Yankees fault that they didn’t lock up their All-Star second baseman; it’s the fault of an agent with dollar signs in his eyes. Back in mid-November it was reported that Jay-Z is trying to make Cano “the next Michael Jordan.” While logic gets a bit lost when it comes to sport, the concept of trying to make Cano into the next marketing sports superstar is not exactly as farfetched as some would like to believe; however, there is a lot of work to be done to be able to accomplish this goal. The first leg has been accomplished: get Cano out of New York.

It seems odd that leaving New York would help Jay-Z’s and Cano’s financial vision quest, but Seattle is that best place to make that happen. See, Michael Jordan was known when he played at the University of North Carolina, but he still wasn’t as important of a piece as say Sam Perkins or James Worthy when the Tar Heels won the NCAA Championship in 1982; which is why the Portland Trailblazers would take a guy like Sam Bowie over Jordan and let him slip to the Chicago Bulls. Chicago, after all, is a basketball Mecca, but at the time only for the sake of the high school and college levels. The Bulls had some players in their past, but nobody had really taken off with the exception of Jerry Sloan and Artis Gilmore. When Jordan was selected with the third overall pick in the 1984 draft, then-General Manager Jerry Krause did it with the intention of having a player to build a team around. Jordan was 21-years-old at that time and looking to prove that he was the greatest of all-time. At that age, with that kind of an ego and really nothing to lose until your GM assembles more key pieces; it makes sense why Jordan was so sought after when it came to endorsements, especially a Portland, Oregon-based shoe company called Nike. Compare this path to the one that Cano has already taken. Cano has been playing for nine seasons, is definitely at the top of his game, has one World Series ring on his finger and is now 31-years-old starting on a new team that already has an established head rooster (Hernandez) after leaving a team in which he wasn’t the leader, Jeter clearly was. This last bit isn’t that big of a problem just as long as he doesn’t bring down morale, which I really don’t think he will. But like Jordan, the endorsements have started coming in, the biggest of which has been with Pepsi back in July of this year when they signed Cano to a multi-million dollar deal prior to the All-Star Game at Citi Field. Since then, Cano is the lead talent in Nike’s Christmas commercial campaign which will ultimately lead to more projects and potentially a larger deal as he will now be playing less than 200 miles away from Nike’s headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. The fact that Cano is from the Dominican Republic and speaks Spanish will find him in an equally comforting market on the West Coast. There is certainly a lot that Cano and Jay-Z can tap into; however, there is way too much working against the pair to put them on the same level as Jordan.

For starters, Jordan played a game that rivals soccer as the most-played sport around the world. Baseball is played in many other countries, but barely even a speck of what something like cricket pulls in. Second, it’s doubtful that there will ever be a sports figure in Seattle, let alone the entire Pacific Northwest who will ever have the same type of marketing impact that Griffey, Jr. put on display throughout the mid-1990s and early 2000s. That all goes back to the less than 200 miles away from Nike headquarters thing I mentioned in the last paragraph. Lastly, the language you speak does play a big impact in other parts of the world. While I fully understand that Spanish is spoken in several countries throughout the world, English has really come in as the universal language. If Cano can lock down perfect English, then we can talk. For proof, look at what Ichiro has been able to accomplish since mastering English.

While I’ve clearly rambled on more than I really needed to I at least took the time to hit every little point that needed to be discussed with all this money and Jordan-esque dreams flying around. Is the 10-year $240 million contract worth it for both parties? As long as Cano stays healthy, yes; however, the Mariners could have gotten a lot more players than just Cano for that amount. Is Cano going to be the next marketing superstar? Unless Jay-Z has some kind of script in play for a “Space Jam”-type film staring Cano, it’s not likely. Cano and Jay-Z will rake in a lot of dough over the next decade, just not as much as they dream they would.