MINNEAPOLIS – If those writing and/or posting to my e-mail and Twitter accounts are an accurate barometer – and from the insane nature of many of them, please, please let that not be true – then the leading reason why the Yankees have not run away with the AL East is because Robinson Cano will not run quickly to first base.
If only Cano were like, say, I don’t know, Paul O’Neill because, wait, come to think of it Paul O’Neill tended to trot to first when he hit a routine grounder or pop. But he showed his emotions outwardly, punched a water cooler, slammed a bat and so he was The Warrior.
So if Cano just learned to fire a batting helmet into the ground, would all be forgiven? Or is there something deeper at work here?
Before we get too sociological, let’s focus on why the Yankees are not comfortably ahead of the Orioles. There are many reasons, of course. However, it you want to home in on Cano, the problem is not hustle, it is big-moment muscle.
Cano is one of the greatest hitters in the world, batting in the middle of a strong lineup, yet 153 games into the season he has 80 RBIs. That’s one less than Mark Teixeira in 150-ish more at-bats. Say he had 100 or 110 RBIs, would the Yankees have two or three more wins and be in a more comfortable position atop the AL East?
“I don’t like excuses,” Cano said. “I am not doing what I need to do with men on base. But my mindset is always to forget about that and concentrate on now.”
Look, the Yankees’ clutch failings are pretty much a team-wide epidemic. Still, more responsibility falls to Cano than others. He is the Yankees’ best hitter. Period. He is the guy who fired his old agent and hired Scott Boras because he wants the kind of state-of-the-art contract that goes to the jump-on-my-back stars.
Well, it is jump-on-the-back time and the initial impression of Cano is MIA, not MVP.
He went 0-for-4 last night with an RBI groundout in a 6-3 victory over Minnesota. That dropped him to .204 in his last 25 games with three homers and 10 RBIs. He is 4-for-22 (.182) with men in scoring position. It is a small sample size. But this is a 2012 problem: Cano went into last night hitting .241 with a paltry .376 slugging percentage with men in scoring position.
Cano had seemed to put clutch questions that haunted him early in his career in the rearview mirror. Over the previous two seasons combined, he was one of seven players with at least a .320 average and .570 slugging percentage with runners in scoring position (minimum 300 plate appearances), joining an elite crew of Joey Votto, Adrian Gonzalez, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Gonzalez, Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun.
Plus, Cano was the Yankees’ best postseason hitter the past two years (.333 average, .737 slugging), which included waging an impressive mano a mano against Josh Hamilton in the 2010 ALCS.
This season, however, no Yankee has had more plate appearances with runners in scoring position (173) than Cano, yet he was tied for fourth on the team in RBIs (32) in such situations. Cano had the fourth-most at-bats (275) in the majors with men on base, but was tied for 56th in RBIs in such situations (63) with, among others, Dan Uggla, who was removed from Atlanta’s lineup for not delivering enough impact. By way of comparison, St. Louis’ Matt Holliday had 85 RBIs in 274 at-bats with men on base, Kansas City’s Billy Butler 86 in 270, Minnesota’s Josh Willingham 92 in 267.
“I’m in the middle of the lineup, so I’m one of the key guys who must drive in runs,” Cano said.
He is the key guy. Derek Jeter and Ichiro Suzuki are table-setters. Teixeira is out injured. Alex Rodriguez is operating on muscle memory. Curtis Granderson is too hit-and-miss, Nick Swisher too emotionally fragile. Cano is in his prime with an impeccable swing and track record. That has made a contract of $150 million, maybe even $200 million, possible. But he is going to hurt his case with the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately Yankees if he cannot carry them now in this time of need.
“We have 10 games left, which is about 50 at-bats,” Cano said. “You don’t know what can happen in those 50 at-bats. Just look what Ichiro did with his last 50 at-bats.”
Ten games. Fifty at-bats. Sure it would be more aesthetically pleasing to see Cano bust it to first base. But the Yankees need him to drive in runs way more than they need him to run fast.
joel.sherman@nypost.com