Dave Pinto of the excellent Baseball Musings blog has undertaken the massive task of profiling every single player in Major League Baseball. He recently covered Robinson Cano, and made an assertion that I strongly disagree with:
Like Carew, Robinson Cano is not likely to stay at second base very long. His fielding numbers came up negative in most years he’s played. He does have the power to move to first base, but I would guess he’s more likely to follow the Alfonso Soriano route to the outfield. If the Yankees can develop a slick fielding second baseman, they may be able to fill their leftfield hole with Robinson eventually.
Cano would lose a significant amount of value if he moved to the outfield. His .320/.352/.520 bat is elite at 2nd base, while it is closer to the pack (but still excellent) relative to left fielders. Just as a point of reference, the league average left fielder hit .269/.340/.440 last year, while the league average second baseman came in at .271/.336/.414. While it does not seem to be a huge difference, Cano as an average defender in LF last year would likely have been about a 3.8 win player (thanks to Mike Axisa for running the numbers), rather than the 4.4 win guy he was at 2nd base.
More importantly, it is easier to find a decent bat in left field than it is to find one up the middle. If you develop a player who is great offensively at one of those positions, you only move him if he is awful defensively, and Cano does not qualify. The strength of the Yankee dynasty clubs on the late 90′s was their incredible offensive capabilities up the middle, with Posada, Jeter, Bernie, and Knoblauch providing the core around which the rest of the lineup could be built. Hopefully, Cano, Curtis Granderson, and Jesus Montero form the core of the latest Yankee powerhouse.
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25 Responses to Moving Cano To Left Field
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TIQ IQ
i like this suggestion, cano has too many lapses in concentration from my point of view to be an infielder and would be better in the outfield, defense up the middle is more important then offense, move cano and replace him with a solid defensive second baseman and his lack of concentration will become less of a problem in the outfield, this just might help his offense also, a win win as far as i’m concerned for the yanks and their youth movement.
I would actually be for the move if the Yankees had some elite second baseman in their farm system. They don’t though, so it won’t happen. I wonder what Cano’s range would be, however, in left field.
In terms of value, the best available 2B is Hudson, about a 3 win player. David Dejesus was a 3.2 WAR player, Seth Smith at 2.7. These sort of 2.5-3 win LF’ers are significantly more freely available than 2nd Basemen of that value, who are generally locked up. When you have 4.4 WAR player up the middle, you leave him there and thank the baseball gods.
The issue with Hudson is age. It’s much easier to find an elite left fielder then an elite second baseman. And I would venture to guess it will be cheaper as well.
Sure, but if the Yankees had an elite second baseman in their system that they thought was better defensively than Cano (and that could hit like he can), I wouldn’t mind if they made the change (assuming it didn’t end up being a disaster, defensively, for Cano).
Of course. But those guys are exceedingly rare, which is why the best FA 2nd basemen from year to year are guys like Hudson, bc the elite guys are locked up.
Exactly. And the FACT is, the Yankees DON’T have that player. To quote a much smarter man then me, the great Vince Vaughn…
“Erroneous! Erroneous! Erroneous on both counts!”
Quoting Vince Vaughn is unfair. I can’t top that.
I was shocked Pinto would suggest moving Cano to left. I think Cano played near Gold Glove caliber defense in 2009. He’s got one of the best arms of any second basemen and improved his range to his left. Cano is a premier second baseman who should not be moved.
I’m not sure he was GG caliber, but I think he was better than UZR shows. It will be interesting to see how he scores on UZR going forward.
I’m with you on this one. If Montero was a slick fielding 2nd baseman I would say sure, move Robby for Jesus, but putting him in left just to open a hole at 2nd that you don’t have a plug-in ready for is nuts. I never liked it when they moved Soriano. We’ve talked at length here about LF being a flex position this year. Leave it at that, we’ll be fine.
Agreed. I think this is a rash move, and one the Yankees wouldn’t seriously consider.
Look, the Yankees are NOT going to overreact to not having an elite player at every position (Swisher may or may not be elite, depending on what your idea of elite is). Just because the left fielder is Gardner does not mean it needs to be immediately filled with a superstar. If the Yankees had a Chase Utley (or Montero, for instance, was a 2B) coming up, sure move Cano. Since they don’t, leave it the way it is. This team DID just win the World Series after all. I also agree that his UZR rating will be interesting going forward; I do believe he has the ability to get better at 2B.
I sometimes wonder if the idea of Cano being “lazy” and “nonchalant” affects UZR, somehow. Subjectivity can sometimes seep in there, and I wonder if a reputation develops for a player, then maybe that rep affects the ratings for that player. Not sure if that’s possible or what, but it’s just a thought.
Totally agree. There are those who are convinced that some of the early PBP results for Jeter were skewed by the goal of proving that he is awful out there. I would not take it that far, but I would say that his smooth nature can be taken as nonchalance and lead a stringer to believe he should have reached certain balls.
I think we should write a post about this in full and blow the lid off this UZR crap… Ha!
This makes no sense, LF needs to be left open for the eventual ARod/Jeter move since you can’t have a SS approaching 40. I’m betting they ask Jeter to move to LF since ARod already moved to accomodate Jeter and since Jeter’s contract is up sooner. Or ARod moves with Jeter moving to 3rd.
The Yanks need to stop the nonsense and resign Johnny for at least another year. I’m sorry, there isn’t a single serious Yankee fan that wants Gardner up to bat in the playoffs in a tough spot vs Damon. His value is in the playoffs, not over a 162 game season.
Jeter will never play LF. SS or retirement, IMO.
Giant +1 to this. There’s no way Jeter ever moves. He’s got too much pride and, frankly, I don’t know if the Yankees have the balls to force a move.
i agree jeter moves only if he sats its time..but i see him as DH like molitor did and was great at it.. if he wants to be # 3 all time he knows he must DH. we will see what he wants to do next contract, he smart enough to know if he wants 5 6 more years it can’t be at ss, then he will take himself down without grace and class. he is in the top 5 yankees ever. he knows that ,so i think he moves to dh ,
Agree. And there seems to be no reason for him to move.
Gardner is not up instead of Damon_ he’s up instead of Melky. And you definitely want Gardner in the field in a tough spot in the playoffs. I want Damon back, but lets present the actual case.
Unless Cano starts posting consistent -10 or worse seasons at 2B, he should stay at 2B.
Agreed. His UZR was almost average last season (an UZR of 0 isn’t average, exactly).
Moshe thats correct gardy and platoon spells melky , grandy spells damon, and johnson, matsui. probably lose 25 HRs, OBP should be up, and defense will be much better.. matsui was great in post season, but was painful to watch during the year, he was a bad swing from the DL.
We’ve been hearing “Cano won’t stick at 2B” for years, now.
I think we can all safely ignore these ridiculously suggestions. Cano is one of the best 2B-man in the AL, and no one would be surprised if he was the best in any given year.