Robinson Cano's Rise to the Top

via janeheller.mlblogs.com

I believe it’s safe to say that the New York Yankees were lacking a solid second baseman for a stretch of time after trading Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias for some guy named Alex Rodriguez. Miguel Cairo mainly held down the fort in 2004, posting a decent .346 OBP while barely achieving 100 hits. Then, the Yankees signed a 35-year-old Tony Womack to play the position. Although he was mediocre, the Yankees were looking for bigger and better things.

I’ll bet not too many people remember that Rey Sanchez was the starting 2nd baseman for the Yankees on May 2nd. However, the following day was much more important. Although Sanchez collected two hits in five AB’s, it was not his turn to start for the Bombers. It may not have seemed like it at the time, but a star was born on May 3rd, 2005. A young and slim Robinson Cano emerged from the visitor dugout at Tropicana Field to make his major league debut for New York.

The Yankees were 11-16 heading into action that evening and this was certainly a prime opportunity for a 22-year-old kid to showcase his talents. And boy did Robinson ever put on a show for us.

Cano finished 2nd in the AL Rookie of the Year voting (behind CP Huston Street of the Oakland A’s) while putting up a triple slash of .297/14/78 in 132 games. Not too bad for a 22 year old kid. He was a bit lazy in the field at times, didn’t use great speed, and was a bit impatient at the plate, but the upside to Cano was definitely too good to resist.

Here are Cano’s statistics over all six years of his career thus far.

As you all can clearly see, Cano has tallied up some exceptional numbers for a 27-year-old second baseman. He’s on pace for career highs in every category except for hits (which is not out of reach). Robinson has blossomed into a truly magnificent baseball player. His #24 has become a fixture on the back of Yankee uniforms and shirts all over the world (after brief stints with #14 and #22).

Now, here’s where things get interesting. I’m going to take the top-five second basemen since 2005 and compare Cano’s numbers to theirs as of August 24, 2010. Keep in mind that Robinson posted a horrendous year in 2008 most likely due to the fact that he signed a fairly big contract that clearly had effects on his mindset/play. Also, the other four second basemen did not play as many games as Cano did due to injury. So, I kept their batting averages and OBP the same but evened out the rest of the playing field to try and get an accurate and fair comparison. This is all assuming the players kept the same pace. 

2006-2010 if every player played 726 games

All of the above players are proven second basemen that have played the position well over the past five years. Robinson Cano has the most power for a second baseman in the American League and hits for the most extra-base hits. His speed is evidently lacking, as he has been caught stealing more times than he has successfully stolen a base before. Although Cano has been considered one of the top players in his position, it wasn’t until this year that he totally broke out of his shell. He has already surpassed his RBI total from last year and is tied with the amount of homeruns he hit last year.

The main reason for Cano’s success has been two-fold; the ability of the batters in front of him to reach base and his own ability to reach base safely. Before this year, his highest BB% was 5.8% reached back in 2007. This year, he has increased that to 8.8% and is seeing much better pitches to drive simply because of his newly found patience at the plate.

Cano is signed through the end of the 2011 season. He has potential to become the greatest Yankee second baseman in the history of the organization. It probably won’t be too big of a problem to keep the man around. Following the tracks of players like Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera; He’s one of our own.

And of course, most data was taken from baseball-reference.com as well as fangraphs.com.