Suspended

There's no reason to sugarcoat this: Robinson Cano made a career-changing mistake. 

Revealed on Tuesday, his 80-game suspension for using a banned substance will forever taint the player who, up till now, was on track to rank with the greatest 2nd basemen ever. But that reputation is now in tatters and his chances for Hall of Fame induction are now very much in doubt.

After the annoucement, someone close to Cano claimed he used Furosemide to treat high blood pressure. But that alibi doesn't hold water. Where did Cano get the prescription? It couldn't have been from the Mariners medical staff -- any doctor working for a major league club would check a med against the list of banned products. If Cano needed something to control his blood pressure -- somewhat surprising for a healthy, fit 35 year-old -- an "approved" pharmaceutical would certainly have been found.

There's also buzz that the product is used as a masking agent, to cover any traces of something else -- and I won't even speculate on what "else" might be.

Players know they're going to be tested. And they're aware -- and if they're not, their agents are -- that today's testing procedures are far more effective compared to 10 or 20 years ago. 

So you have to wonder why: What was Cano thinking? Was this lifetime .304 hitter who passed 300 career homers last year worried that he was about to slip? To fall victim to the inevitability of age? 

Why risk throwing away all he accomplished in his first 13 season for another extra base hit or a quicker first step going after a grounder?

Did Cano learn nothing from playing alongside Derek Jeter for almost a decade?

He'll have 80 games -- from now till roughly mid-August -- to think about the after-effects of taking Furosemide and how it will impace the rest of his baseball life.