FROM JOEL SHERMAN

Robinson Cano has become this year’s Jose Reyes. Cano is the abundantly talented player who is sleepwalking through a pennant race, just as Reyes did last year. Willie Randolph never did figure out how to turn Reyes’ switch back on and it was a big reason that he lost his job. Now Joe Girardi faces the tricky leadership moment of figuring out how to handle a skilled, young player whose concentration and zest have diminished before our eyes. Do you bench him? Randolph tried that last year and seemed to only lose Reyes further. Also, with every game so precious, does Girardi risk not using a player who gives him probably the best chance to win (just an aside here, he did sit the AL’s leading hitter, Johnny Damon, the other day for no apparent reason except that he felt like it)? Like with the Mets and Reyes, the Yanks already have bestowed a long-term contract on Cano.

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