Robinson Cano MVP: Is Seattle Mariners Second Baseman Best Player In Baseball?

Robinson Cano MVP chants are ringing around Safeco Field again this year. Cano helped the Seattle Mariners to a huge 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Saturday night, May 7, hitting two home runs in the game. With the game tied at 2-2 in the tenth inning, Cano stepped up and crushed an opposite field homer that would end up being the game-winner for the Mariners. The blast was just enough to give the Mariners another win against an Astros team many experts had picked to dominate the American League West.

Through 30 games this season, Cano now has 11 home runs and 32 RBIs to his name. Those numbers lead the league, placing Cano right in the MVP discussion five weeks into the regular season. Cano also has a 0.306 batting average, 0.621 slugging percentage, and a 0.979 OPS that ranks as the best of his career. It’s easy to see why the Seattle Mariners are at 18-12 with a commanding lead in the AL West. The last game also pushed the Houston Astros further into last place and seven-and-a-half games behind the Mariners.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the Seattle Mariners have been hitting and pitching very well recently, making the team one of the best in Major League Baseball for 2016. While it’s still very early in the regular season, the Mariners are playing the type of baseball that usually ends with a team playing deep into October. It hasn’t hurt that Robinson Cano is putting up MVP numbers for the team during just his third season in Seattle. Jokes about him not earning that contract have quieted New York Yankees fans as well.

To give further perspective on the 11 home runs that Robinson Cano has this season, the Atlanta Braves only have seven home runs (total) as a team so far. While that is the worst in baseball, it certainly shows how well Cano is seeing the ball at the plate. His power surge has helped the Seattle Mariners hit the fourth-most home runs in baseball and the most in the American League through the first 30 games. If the power hitting can continue, the Mariners will be a very dangerous team moving forward.

Robinson Cano is in the third season of a 10-year, $240 million deal he signed with the Seattle Mariners. While he did struggle with his health during the 2015 MLB season, Cano seems to just be getting better as a member of the Mariners. Cano’s career-high for homers in a season was established in the 2012 MLB season when he hit 33 for the New York Yankees. His high-water mark for RBIs came in the 2011 MLB season when he posted 118 for the Yankees. Both numbers could fall if he continues his pace this year.

While some fans may consider the Robinson Cano MVP chants a bit premature at this point of the season, it has been a while since Seattle Mariners fans have had exciting baseball this deep into the regular season. The last time that the Mariners made the MLB Playoffs was in 2001, when the team set a record of 116 wins during the regular season. Now, fans just want to see playoff baseball again, no matter what the final record ends up indicating. Starting out 18-12 has generated a lot of extra excitement in the Pacific Northwest when the Seattle Seahawks might have taken center stage again.

The early production from Cano has certainly also made a lot of fantasy baseball owners ecstatic, but the ultimate test will be to see how long he can extend this success at the plate. If the Robinson Cano MVP march starts to really take hold, it will mean that not only is he impressing analysts at the plate, but most likely that the Seattle Mariners are continuing to win ballgames. Can he steal the MLB spotlight for an entire season?

[Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images]