Buster Olney writes that Cano is a young player to watch in 2007 and potentially on track for a “monster season”.  Noting that his average down the stretch was phenomenal and in 122 games Cano still managed 41 doubles.  I tend to agree that Cano is a player to watch and as noted by Len, Russ and Joe, he should bat higher in the lineup. 

The interesting quote was this:

If, in fact, Alex Rodriguez exercises an opt-out option in his contract after the 2007 season and leaves the Yankees — and many baseball executives expect that he will — the emergence of Cano will be a major reason why the team might not think it’s that big of a deal.

I am personally surprised by this.  I guess the feeling is with the inflated market that the teams saw this past season (i.e. Carlos Lee and Alfonso Soriano making $16.5 and $17M per year respectively), A-Rod may be able to duplicate his annual salary someplace else. However, A-Rod is making boatloads of money under his current deal.  He makes $27M in 07, 08, 09 and 10.  Plus he has all those bonus clauses for Silver Sluggers, Gold Gloves, MVP awards, Top 10 in MVP voting, Div Series MVP, LCS MVP, WS MVP, All-Star Selections, Media Awards etc.  Plus, the contract has $5M escalator clauses for 09 and 10 (or $1M more than the highest position player whichever is GREATER). So basically, under the current deal A-Rod is guaranteed to make a minimum of  $91 Million in 2008-2010.  Is anyone other than the Yankees going to pay him $30M per year PLUS all the incentive clauses? I don’t see how he ever walks away from this deal.