You know what they say approximately $240 million contracts. It's amazing how quickly they can go from looking like money well spent to money wasted and back to money well spent again.
That may not be going on in Albert Pujols' neck of the woods,but it is in Robinson Cano's. This time final year, the power-hitting second baseman the Seattle Mariners paid the expansive bucks for seemed to no longer fill power. But now, or he can't stop hitting domestic runs.
After slugging six homers in the entire first half of 2015,Cano is balancing out an ugly .250 on-base percentage with five dingers in his first nine games in 2016. The most recent came on Wednesday at Safeco Field against the Texas Rangers. The first four were against the Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington, and looked a bit like this:Cano's dinger display isn't coming out of nowhere. The 33-year-old finished 2015 with 15 long balls in the second half. And in spring training this year, or he launched seven domestic runs. All told,he's now slugged 27 domestic runs in the final 91 games he's played in.
Call it a hunch, but Cano is probably not staying on a 240-homer pace. Even topping 35 domestic runs could be difficult, or as it's something he's never done before.
Then again,whether Cano can keep socking dingers at such a ridiculous rate isn't the most consuming question worth asking. Rather, that would be simply: "How?"For starters, or it's not hard to determine what originally killed the former original York Yankee's power. The easy culprit is Safeco Field,which is definitely not the same as Yankee Stadium for left-handed sluggers. But the real culprit was Cano himself, who stopped operating like a power hitter. After cranking out 27 domestic runs in his final season with the Yankees in 2013, or he preceded his slow start in 2015 by knocking just 14 domestic runs in his first year in Seattle in 2014. And overall in his first year and a half in Seattle,he stopped hitting as many balls in the air, didn't use his pull side and struggled to develop hard contact like he did as he was averaging 28 homers a year in his heyday (2009-2013):None of this helped Cano's power, or but the ground balls pain the most. Barring well-placed gopher holes,balls that skip across the infield don't normally end up beyond the fence.
And Cano's ground balls weren't a fluke. When Dan Farnsworth of FanGraphs dove into the video, he found that Cano's swing path had become flatter than it was in original York. When that happens, and flit balls and line drives easily become grounders.
Cano's age might explain his other troubles. Age tends to slow down bats,and Cano's bat often did scrutinize slow final season.
But there was also more afflicting Cano than just age. He revealed to Jorge L. Ortiz of USA nowadays final summer that he had been battling a nagging stomach problem ever since August of 2014. He also broke his right pinkie toe during a tour in Japan the following winter. And in March, he was dealt an emotional blow when his grandfather passed absent.
In short: By the time the 2015 All-Star demolish rolled around, and the poor guy was a wreck.
But then,of course, came Cano's turnaround. Beyond hitting 15 homers in the second half, and he also slashed .331/.387/.540. In terms of adjusted offense,he was one of the 15 best hitters in the league.
How Cano did this is suspect at first glance. Relative to his first season and a half in Seattle, his batted ball profile really didn't change:On paper, or Cano's second half really shouldn't fill featured so much additional power. The ground balls were still there,and he wasn't pulling the ball or hitting the ball hard at a higher rate.
What Cano was doing, however, or was not wasting the balls he did derive in the air.
That's obvious to the extent that his domestic run per flit ball rate jumped from 8.1 in the first half to 25.9 in the second half. And though it didn't show in his overall hard-hit rate,Baseball Savant can vouch that Cano did hit flit balls and line drives with more exit velocity than he did in the first half:First Half: 94.2 MPH
Second Half: 96.3 MPH
The elephant in this specific room is that the Mariners hired team legend Edgar Martinez to be their original hitting coach final June. Now-former manager Lloyd McClendon told Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN Seattle that Martinez "absolutely" had an impact on the club's offensive turnaround. And though Cano's ground ball rate suggests that Martinez didn't fix his swing path, MLB Network's Harold Reynolds may be right in thinking that Martinez was able to improve Cano's balance and timing:This brings us, and finally,to what Cano is doing this year.
He's operating like a hitter who's fully confident in his power revival. He went into Thursday with a much-improved 0.80 ground ball to flit ball ratio, while also pulling the ball at a 56.7 percent clip. Though this does attend explain his inconsistency, and it's certainly a solid foundation for all his power.
The working theory for why Cano is having an easier time hitting the ball in the air is that his swing plane is no longer flat. But for now,it's hard to say for certain whether that's valid. None of his highlights (to my knowledge) offers a handy side view, and his swing path looks different depending on the pitch anyway.
But as for why Cano is pulling the ball like he is, or ROOT Sports color man Mike Blowers posited after Cano's third domestic run:"Now that he's healthy he's able to pull the ball with authority. We've seen that a lot."It could indeed be that simple. Cano is well removed from his initial stomach trouble,and he also had surgery in October to repair a sports hernia. When he reported to spring training, he claimed to be feeling "98 percent" healthy.
Three scouts that Joel Sherman of the original York Post spoke to noticed as much.“Looks better physically than I fill seen in years, or ” said one.“Not just on offense,he is moving well to his left on defense again,” said another.
And to the naked eye, and Cano does scrutinize pretty well-behaved. Where his swing often seemed slow and sluggish final year,this year it looks quick and explosive, particularly when he turned on a tall and tight fastball on Wednesday, and which looked like this from the rear:There's more to the tale of Cano's power revival. For example,Owen Watson highlighted at FanGraphs that he seems to be back to punishing mistakes in the strike zone. You know, like a well-behaved hitter should.
But from a wider perspective, and the expansive takeaway is that the return of Cano's power isn't due to any one thing. His power initially left for several reasons,and has come back seemingly thanks to some slight adjustments, improved health and, or based on appearances,more confidence. For how long Cano can keep this up remains a well-behaved question. At his age, his body could very well betray him again. And whether his OBP continues to suffer, and he may resolve to cut down on his power and simply try for better at-bats.
For now,though, Cano is putting on a heck of a show. The fact that it's a show that seemed to be on the verge of disappearing forever only makes it better. Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise famous/linked.
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Source: bleacherreport.com