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Cano said he feels physically stronger heading into the season than he did last year. (Ulysses Mu\u00f1oz\/The Banner)<\/p>\nSARASOTA, Fla. \u2014 Yennier Cano wanted to take his training to the next level last year. He modernized his approach, heading to an academy that restructured his entire schedule \u2014 no daily weightlifting sessions, no lightweight ball drills.<\/p>\n
He felt great. Until he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I\u2019d look at my velocity and go, \u2018What\u2019s going on there?\u2019\u201d Cano said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones.<\/p>\n
It all went wrong. The Orioles right-handed reliever saw his ERA balloon to 5.12. He went from dominant to dominated \u2014 from a former All-Star to a reliever optioned to the minors midway through 2025. Cano couldn\u2019t help but think the changes in his offseason routine were a major reason his performances wavered. <\/p>\n
As Cano aims to recapture the form he had during the best season of his career, his first step was returning to the routines he developed in Cuba that helped him blossom in 2023 as a dynamo out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I feel like I\u2019m in great shape,\u201d Cano said. \u201cI feel really good, and I feel like I\u2019m the 2023 Cano right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Cano can truly return to the best version of himself, it would be a massive boost for Baltimore\u2019s bullpen. There are more questions than sureties among the current class of relievers, and the late-inning options were slimmed Wednesday when manager Craig Albernaz announced right-hander Andrew Kittredge may miss opening day due to shoulder inflammation.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Cano produced a 2.11 ERA. He went to Seattle as an All-Star. What worked well for him then was a 58.9% ground ball rate, which was among the highest in baseball. His sinker was like a bowling ball, then-manager Brandon Hyde often said \u2014 it came in quickly before it plunged with late vertical movement.<\/p>\n
But last season Cano\u2019s sinker averaged 95.1 mph, which was about 1 mph slower than previous years. The vertical break he induced was less than in 2023 by more than an inch, according to Statcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of that had to do with the condition I was in physically,\u201d Cano said. \u201cBut I think that now it\u2019s looking a lot better in terms of movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Tampa, where Cano lives, he returned to the basics. He ran on the beach and lifted weights every day. He threw a special ball that is similar in weight to a softball, only smaller, to build his arm speed.<\/p>\n
With those routines at the center of his winter workouts, Cano entered camp feeling stronger and more capable of finding success.<\/p>\n
Cano said he feels physically stronger heading into the season than he did last year. (Ulysses Mu\u00f1oz\/The Banner)<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s gross. He\u2019s still gross,\u201d Albernaz said. \u201cHe\u2019s continually working hard, and all my conversations with him are that he knows he\u2019s not a finished product. He knows there are always little dials to turn to get better, and he\u2019s embracing what the pitching coach has. But the dude\u2019s a freak. Like, he\u2019s a freak on the mound. And it\u2019s fun I\u2019m wearing the same uniform as him, not watching him carve up guys on my team as I watch from across the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those adjustments has been scrapping his changeup to throw his splitter only. Cano said the movement profile of his circle changeup was too similar to that of his sinker, and as batters got to know him better, they knew how to adjust to a pitch only a few ticks in velocity apart. Batters hit .417 against Cano\u2019s changeup last year.<\/p>\n
His splitter, though, brings more depth to his arsenal. Cano plans to pair it with high fastballs while continuing to throw a slider and occasional cutter and four-seam fastball.<\/p>\n
In that way, his arsenal is different than it was in 2023. But, as Cano aims to cement himself once more as a reliable reliever, the return of his old training techniques was important.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went back to what I was doing in \u201923 when I had great results,\u201d Cano said. \u201cJust looking to go back to that and replicate that year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. \u2014 Yennier Cano wanted to take his training to the next level last year. He modernized…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,182,4635,4,12212,125,35999,64,151],"class_list":["post-607911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-florida","tag-grapefruit-league","tag-mlb","tag-os","tag-orioles","tag-pitt","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-spring-training"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116177217595389141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}