Power is Present
Cano has hit two Home Runs this year compared to 14 and 21 in the last two years respectively. Cano is continuing his strong finish from last year by flashing power that we know Cano has. His HR yesterday was a no doubt HR that had a true distance of 432 feet. His HR off of Cole Hamels was labeled as just enough, but still shows true signs of power. The true distance was 391 feet and was good enough to leave 22 ballparks. Even more promising the speed off of the bat was 112 Miles per Hour. Last season his top bat speed on a HR was 107 so it is encouraging to see that he did that in his second HR, and he topped it in his first. These trends should continue, and maybe it will not result in only HRs, but it will surely help his count for doubles. It is promising to see that he his fully healthy and crushing the ball. Last year Cano's Line Drive rate went up 3 percentage points which is also promising for his power.
Plate Discipline
Cano has always been well disciplined that is an undisputed fact. While this next statistic is a small sample size for this year it is a promising sign. 62% of the piches he has faced have been in the strike zone. Cano has swung at 61% of those pitches. Of all the pitches he has swung at in the zone he has made contact. This means either fouling pitches off or putting them in play. This helps push strikeout rates lower. Speaking of strikeouts, Cano only has one this year through two games. He is sitting at an 11% K rate which falls in line with his 12% career rate. Meaning his increased bat speed and power is not coming because of a changed approach or more swings.
Takeaway
Cano is showing signs that his elite second half from last year will continue. He has an increase in LD% from last year as well as an increased exit velocity (so far) this year. These two factors combined will lead to more HRs. The especially promising sign is that these changes have occurred with no change to his approach at the plate.
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