Fantasy Baseball 2018: Is Robinson Cano undervalued?

The Mariners made some offensive improvements this offseason. Is second baseman Robinson Cano still undervalued?

The Seattle Mariners were, surprisingly, one of the few teams to be in on Shohei Ohtani. While the team ultimately didn’t sign him, they made a couple of trades to help the offense. Can Robinson Cano still perform like a top-five second baseman in 2018?

Cano had a down season last year. He played in 150 games in 2017, his fewest since 2006. He hit .280, his lowest batting average since 2008. Cano crushed 23 home runs, 97 RBIs and scored 79 runs. He’s been a great power hitter, but not amazing like his teammate. He hit a career-high 39 homers in 2016 and hit 30-plus home runs only one other time.

Cano does have a career .305/.354/.494 line with an average of 24 home runs and 96 RBI per season. Those are very good numbers from your second baseman. Looking at the rest of the top second basemen, very few can come close to Cano’s production.

More from Fantasy Baseball

Cano finished sixth in home runs, second in RBI, 13th in runs, 10th in batting average and 10th in on-base percentage among second basemen.

Now, with the additions to the Mariners offense, Cano should be able to bounce back this season. The team traded for Ryon Healy early in the offseason. The front office struck a deal with the Miami Marlins to acquire Dee Gordon. Now, you can’t have two players play second base. Gordon is likely moving to the outfield.

The Mariners still have Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager, Mitch Haniger and Jean Segura at the top of the lineup. Pitchers will have to pick their spots on who to intentional walk and who to go after. I think Cano will get his fair share of pitches to hit throughout the season.

My colleague Gavin Tramps recently wrote about another veteran second baseman being a sleeper this season. I think Cano is also in the same category to some extent. I have five players ranked ahead of Cano. The obvious one is Jose Altuve. I also have Cano’s teammate Gordon ahead of him (he’ll gain outfield eligibility after 10 games) along with Jose Ramirez, Daniel Murphy and Brian Dozier rounding out my top five.

Cano had a 59.9 ADP according to FantasyPros. Looking at the five players I have ahead of him, I think Cano is undervalued. Altuve and Gordon don’t hit for power. I don’t think Gordon reaches 60 steals again this season. The other three produced close to the same numbers as Cano but have a higher ADP for some reason.

Cano saw a drop in his fly ball rate and increase in his ground ball rate. But looking at his career numbers, 2017 was more of an outlier than the norm. He wasn’t swinging at more pitchers or swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone. Cano made the same contact in his last two seasons. It just comes down to where the bat meets the barrel and launch angle.

Next: Top 15 fantasy pitching prospects

Safeco Field is not known to be a hitter’s park but when someone has the power like Cano, those numbers tend to go out the window. If you decide to wait a few rounds for your second baseman, Cano should be right there for the taking. He can still hit 20-plus home runs with 100 RBI and a .285 batting average. Not many second basemen available in the sixth round can do that.

Home/Fantasy Baseball