Jay-Z Seals Robinson Cano Deal with the Seattle Mariners for $240M
Jay-Z isn’t just one of the world’s greatest rappers. He’s also proving to be quite the business man, but that’s not all. If MLB player Robinson Cano’s new contract is anything to go by, one could easily classify the “Magna Carta Holy Grail” rapper as an esteemed negotiator. As Cano’s 8-year contract with the Yankees expired, the negotiations and speculations began to stir.
Most wondered where the 5x MLB All-Star would end up once the Yankees made it clear what they would offer. According to Yahoo! Sports the Yankees had no intentions of investing more than $175 million over a seven year span. Yankees franchise president, Randy Levine, even weighed in on Cano’s request, declaring it ‘unrealistic’.
“We have no interest in doing any 10-year deals and no interest in paying $300 million to any player,” he said. “Until he gets a little more realistic, we have nothing to talk about.”
Even in the preliminary contract negotiations, it was already clear that Cano would probably not be returning to New York. Given his original asking price of $310 million, the $175 million dollar offer was abruptly dismissed and deemed insufficient. So, the Roc Nation Sports owner swiftly moved forward negotiating with other MLB franchises to lock down the league’s most sought-after free agent, Forbes reports.
However, in an attempt to seal the initial $310 million dollar deal, Jay-Z ended up sitting down with the Seattle Mariners, who deftly expressed their interest in the 2011 Home Run Champion. While the Mariners wouldn’t agree to the staggering $310 million asking price, inside sources have confirmed that Roc Nation Sports was able to come to an amicable agreement of $240 million over 10 years. The deal is definitely one for the record books as it is the third largest contract in MLB history.
Although most would consider the highly attractive deal quite sizable, there’s still the question of whether Cano, himself, was actually pleased with the outcome. The end result actually came with a $70 million dollar decline from his initial asking price. While this may not seem like much given the fact that he locked down $240 million, other numbers and factors should be considered.
For those who don’t know, Cano already had a high level of expectation given his previous sports agent. Cano walked away from MLB agent extraordinaire, Scott Boras, to join Roc Nation Sports. Boras is widely known for scoring Alex Rodriguez’s monster contracts which are calculated as the two largest in MLB history. The two staggering contracts came to a whopping total of $527 million; one for $252 million, the other for $275 million.
