Andy Van Slyke rips Robinson Cano, says he got people fired

Andy Van Slyke gave a scathing assessment of Robinson Cano’s performance last year for the Seattle Mariners and says his poor season led to many in the organization being fired.

Van Slyke, who was a three-time All-Star during his playing career and spent the last two seasons as a Mariners coach, says Cano was so bad that he got the team’s GM, hitting coach, manager and coaching staff fired.

“He had probably the worst single year of an everyday player I’ve ever seen in 20 years at the big league level,” Van Slyke said during an appearance on “The Press Box” with Frank Cusumano on CBS Sports Radio 920 in St. Louis Thursday. “He was just the most awful player that I’ve ever seen.”

Cusumano then asked Van Slyke, who was the team’s outfielders coach last year after spending 2014 as an assistant hitting coach, what went wrong with the Mariners last season.

“Our bullpen blew up. Fernando Rodney was horrible. Your highest-paid, supposedly best player … I mean Robinson’s not a bad guy, let me say that before I say anything bad about how he played … but Robinson Cano was the single worst third-place everyday player I’ve ever seen … for the first half of a Major League Baseball season. He couldn’t drive home Miss Daisy if he tried. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t get a hit when it mattered,” Van Slyke said of Cano.

“He played the worst defense that I’ve ever seen. I’m talking the worst defensive second basemen EVER I’ve ever seen in 20 years in the big leagues. Any ball that was hit to him, it was an out. Still maybe one of the best (at turning double plays). Great arm … but Robinson Cano cost the GM his job; the hitting coach got fired because of Cano; and the manager and coaches got fired because of Cano, because that’s how much of an impact he has on the organization.”

Cano is the highest-paid position player on the Mariners at $24 million a season and was their big signing whom they looked to as a cornerstone. Unfortunately he hit just .251 with six home runs during the first half of the season last year. Though he hit .331 with 15 home runs in the second half, it was too late as the Mariners had already fallen out of the playoff race.

Van Slyke was fired in October along with manager Lloyd McClendon and other members of the team’s staff. GM Jack Zduriencik was fired in August. Hitting coach Howard Johnson was canned in June.

Van Slyke was asked about Cano’s effort and said the second basemen tries “sometimes.” He’s not the first to question the All-Star’s effort, as former Yankees legend Mariano Rivera did too.

Another interesting nugget from Van Slyke came when he implied Clayton Kershaw told the Los Angeles Dodgers to get rid of Yasiel Puig.

After delivering a harsh critique like that, Van Slyke might have a tough time finding another coaching job. Do GMs want to hire a guy who rips a star player for getting the coaching staff fired, or do they want someone who’s not going to pop off to the media?