Robinson Cano
Cano's .313 average in 2012 represents the peak of a career built on surgical precision at the plate. That season's 128 OPS+ marked his offensive ceiling — a player who consistently made hard contact while playing premium defense at second base.
The Dominican's eight All-Star selections tell the story of sustained excellence across two decades. His career .301 average speaks to a hitter who rarely chased bad pitches, though his 111 career OPS+ suggests he was more craftsman than slugger. Those five Silver Sluggers reward a second baseman who could drive in 100 runs without selling out for power.
What made Cano special was his swing — smooth, repeatable, and designed for contact. His 335 career home runs came naturally from his stroke, not from trying to launch everything into orbit.
Career · Batting
17 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | NYY | 132 | 522 | 14 | 62 | .297 | .778 | 104 |
| 2006 | NYY | 122 | 482 | 15 | 78 | .342 | .890 | 116 |
| 2007 | NYY | 160 | 617 | 19 | 97 | .306 | .841 | 111 |
| 2008 | NYY | 159 | 597 | 14 | 72 | .271 | .715 | 95 |
| 2009 | NYY | 161 | 637 | 25 | 85 | .320 | .871 | 116 |
| 2010 | NYY | 160 | 626 | 29 | 109 | .319 | .914 | 125 |
| 2011 | NYY | 159 | 623 | 28 | 118 | .302 | .882 | 123 |
| 2012 | NYY | 161 | 627 | 33 | 94 | .313 | .929 | 128 |
| 2013 | NYY | 160 | 605 | 27 | 107 | .314 | .899 | 126 |
| 2014 | SEA | 157 | 595 | 14 | 82 | .314 | .836 | 119 |
| 2015 | SEA | 156 | 624 | 21 | 79 | .287 | .779 | 108 |
| 2016 | SEA | 161 | 655 | 39 | 103 | .298 | .882 | 119 |
| 2017 | SEA | 150 | 592 | 23 | 97 | .280 | .791 | 105 |
| 2018 | SEA | 80 | 310 | 10 | 50 | .303 | .845 | 116 |
| 2019 | NYM | 107 | 390 | 13 | 39 | .256 | .736 | 97 |
| 2020 | NYM | 49 | 171 | 10 | 30 | .316 | .896 | 121 |
| 2022 | NYM | 33 | 100 | 1 | 4 | .150 | .373 | 53 |
| Career | 2267 | 8773 | 335 | 1306 | .301 | — | — | |
Every ball this hitter has put in play — how hard it left the bat, and at what angle. The red field behind the dots shows how much damage that kind of contact does, league-wide: the darker the red, the better things go for the hitter.
The field — league-average xwOBA (what a batted ball is typically worth: 0.0 is a sure out, ~2.0 a sure home run) for every exit-velocity × launch-angle combination, measured from 1.3 million regular-season balls in play since 2015. The dark ridge — balls hit 105+ mph at 25–30° — is the barrel zone, where contact becomes near-automatic extra bases.
The dots — this hitter’s career regular-season balls in play, grouped to a fine grid; a bigger dot means more batted balls at that exact combination. Dots piled onto the red ridge are damage; dots low on the pale field are weak or mishit contact. Spring training and the postseason are excluded.
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.