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POLL RESULTS: Cano’s absence is a big deal for the Mariners

Published 10:08 am Friday, May 18, 2018

By Nick Patterson

It seems Seattle Mariners fans fear the loss of Robinson Cano will have a substantial impact on the team.

Seattle’s star second baseman will be out until some time in August. Cano first suffered a broken bone in his hand after being hit by a pitch last Sunday, then on Monday it was announced that he had been suspended by Major League Baseball for 80 games for violating baseball’s joint drug agreement. That means the Mariners will have to navigate the next three months without their No. 3 hitter.

This week’s Seattle Sidelines poll asked voters how much impact they thought Cano’s absence would have on the Mariners, who are off to a good start to the season. Here’s the results:


Add it all up and 55 percent of the responders believe Cano’s absence will have such a major impact on the Mariners that it will affect the the team’s results. Thirty-eight percent said Cano’s absence will have some effect, but that it wouldn’t change the course of Seattle’s season. Seven percent said Cano’s absence will have no effect.

What effect has his absence had so far? Seattle was 22-16 when Cano went down in the third inning of Sunday’s game at Minnesota and right in the hunt for an American League wild-card spot, sitting just a half game behind the Los Angeles Angels for the final berth. Since then the Mariners have gone 2-3, but their positioning hasn’t changed as they remain a half game behind the Angels. It’s a small sample size, but in this respect Seattle’s chances haven’t changed.

However, Fangraphs.com has a different take. According to Fangraphs the Mariners had an 18.7-percent chance of making the playoffs before Cano’s injury, and now Seattle has just a 14.4 percent chance. That’s quite the dip after just five games in May, and probably is because the Mariners have fallen further behind West Division leader Houston and the first wild-card spot (Boston or the New York Yankees) since then.

Even if Seattle is still able to end its 16-season playoff drought, the longest active streak among teams in America’s four major professional sports, the Cano suspension will have an effect, as the suspension renders Cano ineligible to play in the postseason. That means that even if Cano returns in August and gets hot down the stretch to lead Seattle to the playoffs, he won’t be able to contribute to any postseason run.

No, we don’t know for sure how Cano’s absence is going to affect the Mariners’ fate this season. But what we can say is that Cano being suspended is a large obstacle Seattle now has to overcome.

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