Per fangraphs, Cano has a 3.3 WAR, which is good for 8th in the MLB and fourth in the AL, just .3 behind the current leader Mike Trout. Whether you like WAR as a statistic or not, this gives you a sense of everything Cano brings to the team and how durable he is. Replacing superb defense and a .916 OPS is hard enough as it is, but when you're a second basemen, it makes you one of the very most valuable players in baseball.

As Yankee fans, we should simply enjoy Cano's day to day brilliance while he's still in the prime of his career. He's not quite in the class of a young Derek Jeter, but his durability and consistency from year to year should make him in my mind, one of the most appreciated Yankees in recent memory. I feel very similarly about watching Cano today as I did watching guys like Jeter and Bernie when they were still in the primes of their careers. When you think a guy is great, and then he goes out and proves it every day, it's special to watch.

But Cano is "in decline". I read it right here in this very forum

MVP???????????? 34 RBI's???????????? 297 average???????????? Lost with RISP??????????? Better raise your standards!!

Agree at this point but Robbie is capable of getting those numbers up very quickly.
At this point, no where near the zip code for MVP.

Why do you just show WAR as a reason you think he is in the Thick of the MVP race? Wouldn't that make the 7 players ahead of him also in the thick of the MVP race??

As you can probably tell.......*I* don't like Stats like WAR. Can you name the 7 guys who are ahead of Cano in WAR? I'd bet some of the Names have NO CHANCE of being MVP (some might) For ibstance...Trout...He has a great chance for ROY, but almost NO chance for MVP.

Would be interesting to see how Trout plays out the season. His presence has really helped sparked the team, and he now has enough ABs to qualify for the batting title. Second in BA. #12 in Runs, but should get to Top 10 quickly. (A couple of the guys right ahead of him have about 50 ABs more, the leader has about 100 ABs more, but only 11 Runs ahead) He also leads the AL in SBs. I am not sure who I would pick ahead of him for ROY.

As to MVP, he certainly has sparked the Angels.

All I know it is a lot of fun as a baseball fan to see young guys like him, Harper etc. come around. It is good for the game.

Trout is in the MVP race in my opinion, the team is a lot better since he arrived and isn't that a huge part of what an MVP should be about??

Although Cano has been good so far and can still get to MVP, I don't think he really stands a chance of MVP over guys like Konerko, Hamilton, Prince, maybe Trout and likely others. He'll likely be in the voting though.

"Trout is in the MVP race in my opinion, the team is a lot better since he arrived and isn't that a huge part of what an MVP should be about??"

He's a legit ROY, GG,SS and MVP candidate. His defense in center is metrically the best and it certainly passes the eye test plus he's producing a like an elite corner OF'er or 1B. That's value!!!!

Votto is running away with the NL MVP.

Trout has been simply amazing, and Votto, words can not describe how freaking good that bat is....He never even fouls pitches out of play, everything is hit in play and hit hard!!.....

From what I have seen of Votto, I can't believe how good he is. It seems like everything he hits is a line drive.He has to be the best hitter in baseball right now.

I agree, his bat is crazy good!

I like Robbie but I gotta agree with you there

Cano will raise his rbi numbers, he was just in an rbi slump in the first month which killed his rbi stats, he is on pace to break his homerun total even with the first month slump. I wish he was more patient, this guy would be so dangerous if he learned to take pitches.

Cano has as much chance as I do

"Cano as much chance as you? which team do you play for jo-jo? "

NC Copperheads....

Yep gettin all kinds of historical on yerasses

Edumication is FUN!!!

Cano has as much chance as you do what exactly?