Mets to pay Robinson Canó six figures to beat them

The Atlanta Braves traded for Robinson Canó yesterday and today, he will face the New York Mets. So the Mets are paying him to beat them today.

Yesterday, the Atlanta Braves made a trade with the San Diego Padres to acquire Robinson Canó … for the costly sum of one dollar. Today, Canó is in the starting lineup for the Braves, hitting ninth at second base. Who are the Braves facing? Canó’s old team: The New York Mets.

As a result, the Mets are quite literally paying him to beat them in this series.

The Mets are paying Robinson Canó to beat them with the Braves

According to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, the New York Mets are going to be paying Robinson Canó six figures to try to beat them tonight. The Atlanta Braves, on the other hand, are paying him just four figures to beat the Mets.

In total, Canó will be making $128,342 for each game of the series. The Mets will be paying $104,545 of that, or 81.5 percent of his salary. The Padres will pay $20,053 per game, or 15.6 percent, and the Braves will only pay $3,743, or 2.9 percent.

Canó underperformed in the majors earlier this season as in 24 games with the Mets and Padres, he hit .149/.182/.189 with one homer, four RBI, and an OPS+ of 8, which means his offense was 92 percent below league average.

He was better in the minor leagues since San Diego sent him to Triple-A El Paso as he hit .333/.375/.479 with three home runs in 21 games.

As Jon Heyman of The New York Post noted on Twitter yesterday, though, the Braves are in desperate need of some left-handed bats. The Braves regular second baseman, Ozzie Albies, is a left-handed hitter but he’s on the injured list with a fractured foot that he suffered after fouling a ball off the foot on June 13.