It’s felt like since the day Robinson Cano stepped onto the field for the New York Mets, fans far and wide have just been waiting for the day they would never have to watch him play for the team again.

Well, those folks have seemed to have gotten their wish, now that the 38 year-old will serve his PED suspension resulting in him to miss the entire 2021 season.

Cano will also have to forfeit his entire $24 million salary ($20.25 million of which the Mets are now off the hook for), so the question now becomes what adjustments will this mean for their lineup?

While Cano did have a bounce back 2020 season offensively (.352 OBP/.544 SLG/.896 OPS), his suspension creates some great flexibility within their lineup in a few ways.

First and foremost — this now presents the opportunity for Jeff McNeil to finally be able to settle in at one position full-time, which should and most likely be at second base.

Having McNeil as the everyday second baseman should not only maximize his abilities offensively, but keep him healthy and help him on the defensive side of the diamond as well.

Not only does the Cano suspension help situate one of their cornerstone pieces in McNeil, but it also creates an opportunity for another piece of their young core in Dominic Smith to be in the lineup everyday.

If the Universal DH is here to stay for 2021 and beyond then Dom (and Pete Alonso splitting) would immediately slot into that role, however if that’s not the case then Smith can still play a bulk of the time in left field while also sprinkling in at first game when necessary.

Another player that should also see an impact from the suspension is J.D. Davis.

As we know, Smith’s progression into a legitimate middle of the order bat over the last two season has now seemed to make Davis the “odd man out” in who will be in the lineup everyday.

The 27-yard-old struggled in 2020 compared to his breakout 2019 campaign ( .307 BA/.527 SLG/.895 OPS in ’19 to .247 BA/.389 SLG/.761 OPS in ’20), but he did show signs of improvement defensively at third base at some points last year.

We should also acknowledge how quickly things have seemed to change for JD in just a year, when it seemed like Dom Smith was going to be the odd man out heading into 2020 because of Davis’s stellar ’19 performance.

Despite the down year (which we should tossed aside anyway because of the very weird season), expect Davis to go back to being more of the player we were used to seeing at the plate in 2019.

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If the Mets want to maximize Davis’ power in 2021, a good way could be to platoon him at third base with one of the few bright spots of the team in 2020 — Andres Gimenez.

Gimenez proved to be an above average defender and did so at multiple positions on the infield (something the Mets have needed desperately for some time now), but it was his offense that seemed to impressed everyone the most.

In 132 plate appearances in 2020, the rookie hit a respectable .263 with 32 hits and 47 total bases in 49 games.

Although Gimenez still has a ways to go in developing any sort of consistent power, he showed a solid approach at the plate and a compact swing should play as a more than suitable average hitter in a platooned role.

There’s no denying that so far in his career Davis has found more consistent success in the power department against left-handed pitching (.832 career OPS vs LHP opposed to a .774 OPS vs RHP), so a Davis/Gimenez combination could really prove to maximize their overall production at the hot corner.

Besides the flexibility of the current roster losing Cano provides, it also creates more payroll flexibility for the Mets this offseason. The Mets could go after someone like DJ LeMahieu or Justin Turner to round out the infield. Or they could use the extra money to secure George Springer and J.T. Realmuto.

The Cano suspension gives the Mets a ton of different options in how they can use the players they currently have, and their flexibility to add players as well.

With $20.25 million now off of the Mets plate, it will allow for Sandy (or whoever ends up making the decisions) to throw even more at free agents in areas of positional need.

While we shouldn’t celebrate someone being suspended for breaking the rules, Cano’s selfish decision will no-doubt help the Mets in both the short and long term.