While they wait for CC Sabathia to decide if $140 million is worth the headaches created by the spotlight that always scorches the Yankees, the club is jazzed about Robinson Cano’s new body.
“I was as impressed with what he looks like as I have ever been in my whole life,” hitting coach Kevin Long said of Cano yesterday after spending six days last week in the Dominican Republic with the second baseman who led the list of Yankees disappointments last season.
“He hired a personal trainer from New Jersey who is kicking his [butt], and he looks great,” Long said. “His body fat is at 11 percent, his stomach is cut.”
The Yankees have been concerned about the 6-foot Cano’s body weight – listed at 205 pounds – for a while. That, according to Long, shouldn’t be a worry.
“He works on hitting and doing agility drills for two hours, rests and goes to the weight room for three hours,” Long said of Cano, who enters the second-year of a four-year, $30 million deal. “There isn’t a whole lot of heavy lifting. It’s more cardio and light weights.”
While the Yankees’ focus is on signing two free-agent pitchers from the field of A.J. Burnett, Derek Lowe and Sabathia, they are interested in first baseman Mark Teixeira and Orlando Hudson, a second baseman they believe could play center field.
Originally, it was believed their interest in Hudson was a precursor to dealing Cano. However, the Yankees believe the .271 Cano batted a year ago, when manager Joe Girardi removed him from a late-season game for not hustling, was an aberration. Instead, they point to the .346 he batted in 122 games in 206, and to the .306 he hit in 2007.
Because they wanted him to continue to work on the closed stance he started to use in the final month of the season, the Yankees allowed Cano to DH for Estrellas in the Dominican Republic Winter League. Through three games he was hitting .250 (3-for-12).
While Cano works on his body, Long attacked the head with the hope the free swinger can develop early-count plate discipline.
“If he is going to be a third- or fifth-place hitter, which we need him to be, he has to learn about the strike zone and taking a lot more often than not,” Long said of Cano, who drew 26 walks last year. Only 11 players with at least 477 at-bats drew fewer walks than Cano.
“He can do that, because he hits as well as anybody with two strikes.”