Cano Becoming Permanent Solution At Second Base

About five weeks ago, I suggested that Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano and Mets shortstop Jose Reyes shared a common, potentially career-limiting weakness in the form of aversion to the strike zone. Despite this and many other similarities of age and origin – the two were born less than eight months apart in the Dominican Republic – I concluded that Cano would prove to be the more enduring player: Cano has power while what little power Reyes has comes from his ability to leg out extra base hits; Cano plays in a team environment in which patience at the plate is prized.It’s too early to declare Cano a winner over the greatly hyped (perhaps overhyped) Reyes, but he has definitely thrown down the gauntlet. The unflappable rookie followed up a .310 BA/.343 OBA/.520 SLG June with a .356/.371/.540 July. Overall, he’s hitting .307/.330/.489 with an Equivalent Average (an all-in-one offensive stat from Baseball Prospectus in which a player’s total offensive contribution is expressed as a percentage in which .260 is considered league average) of .274.He now ranks fifth in the American League in runs over replacement per game, giving the Yankees .3 runs per game more than, say, Tony Womack would have. Actually, that’s setting the bar too low; Cano chalks up roughly .6 runs above Womack, .3 runs above a replacement player. Womack is safely in sub-replacement territory, the land of players who have a job only because they’ve been fortunate enough to associate themselves with winning teams over the years.Cano has had less success in the fielding department. Although he has good hands and has shown decent range, he’s made 11 errors and has fumbled in a few key situations, serving the ball into left field as if he were trying to hit the tight end rather than Derek Jeter. Clearly, though, Cano has the ability to play the position, at least for now – his lack of speed may eventually compromise his ability to cover the necessary amount of ground. That, though, is a problem for the future.At the plate, Cano’s power has turned out to be real. Despite his 6-foot, 170-pound frame, he slugged .421 in the minors and has eight homers and 21 doubles in half a major league season. His ability to sustain his batting average is more of a question, though he did hit .301 at Double-A last season and .333 in 108 Triple-A at bats early this year. This is the central factor with Cano, because until he develops a willingness to take a pitch – he’s walked a grand total of nine times in 270 at-bats – any time he is not hitting, his on-base percentage will be a burden to the team. Even now, with his hot streak, his OBA of .330 merely ties him with the AL’s average player.Turning to Cano was an act of desperation after the acquisition and failure of Womack. The initial move was tantamount to attempted suicide; Cano is the plucky paramedic who stopped the team from going into that bright light. In finally admitting the failure, the Yankees have a second baseman on whom they can depend for actual major league play for the first time since Alfonso Soriano left for Texas. In fact, Cano will rapidly exceed Soriano.Soriano is an extremely limited player, despite his power. He’s hit 52 home runs since leaving the Yankees, but has increasingly become a creature of the Arlington air currents, batting .242/.280/.407 on the road this year as compared to .322/.353/.678 at home. Now 27, his strike zone judgment, always poor, has improved only slightly; he still fishes for outside pitches. His lapses of concentration at the plate, on the bases, and in the field are legendary. In the 2003 World Series, the Florida Marlins had him swinging at pitches that were closer to the home team’s dugout than home plate, and there are moments when Soriano mentally returns to that place. His stolen bases have also dropped off as his reputation as a power hitter has escalated and, of course, he is an atrocious fielder.The team that buys into Soriano and moves him to the outfield risks repeating the Juan Samuel scenario of 1989. Samuel was a similar player to Soriano at bat and in the field. As longtime Mets followers will recall, the team dealt beloved center fielder Lenny Dykstra and reliable reliever Roger McDowell to the Phillies in order to obtain Samuel and place him in center. It rapidly developed that not only was he was incapable of playing the position, but the move diminished his already-declining bat. The comparison of Soriano to Samuel has always been too tempting, too easy, as if it were foolish to expect history to repeat itself note for note. So far, though, it has, and if Soriano is traded, he likely will continue to follow in Samuel’s footsteps.Thus the Yankees are, finally, after Womack and Miguel Cairo and Enrique Wilson, in a good place, not to mention a cheaper place as far as second base is concerned. As for Cano versus Reyes, the hype still carries the day for the latter, but it’s only a matter of time before even those commentators bedazzled by Reyes’s speed catch on to his deficiencies – a .297 on-base percentage and a .385 slugging percentage created solely by triples. Reyes’s June was his worst month yet, with .243/.250/.304 percentages. His July has been far better – .326/.354/.402 as of yesterday – but note that even these place Reyes below the National League average slugging percentage (.412).For both players, it’s been just a few weeks of hot hitting. Either or both could cool in a hurry. The long-term bet here is still on Cano.Mr. Goldman is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel, released this year.

Cano Becoming Permanent Solution At Second Base

Cano Becoming Permanent Solution At Second Base

More from the New York Sun

Ends Justify Means for Today’s Unprincipled Leftists, Who Promise To Upend the Constitutional Order

Drunk History? America Could Avoid Repeating Excesses of Covid, BLM by Heeding Lesson From Ancient Persia

Abdul El-Sayed’s Success Is Owed to Western Values and American Meritocracy That He Seeks To Abolish

Lily Rabe Brings Summer Magic to Shakespeare’s ‘Winter’s Tale’

‘An American Daughter’ Still Not Quite of Age

At Ohio Light Opera, Old Shows Become New Again

Do Jews Have a Place in New York Magazine’s ‘Habibi City’?

The Fight Ahead Over the Pied-à-Terre Tax

More from the New York Sun

Ends Justify Means for Today’s Unprincipled Leftists, Who Promise To Upend the Constitutional Order

Drunk History? America Could Avoid Repeating Excesses of Covid, BLM by Heeding Lesson From Ancient Persia

Abdul El-Sayed’s Success Is Owed to Western Values and American Meritocracy That He Seeks To Abolish

Lily Rabe Brings Summer Magic to Shakespeare’s ‘Winter’s Tale’

‘An American Daughter’ Still Not Quite of Age

At Ohio Light Opera, Old Shows Become New Again

Do Jews Have a Place in New York Magazine’s ‘Habibi City’?

The Fight Ahead Over the Pied-à-Terre Tax