Shift to infield puts Sano at ease
Twins, third baseman lean on one another to rebound from tough years
Moving back to third base has brought Minnesota Twins slugger Miguel Sano peace of mind. For most players, that’s a major benefit. For him, it’s a lifesaver.
Sano still aches over the loss of his first child, Angelica, who died of a heart defect a week after she was born Nov. 28, 2014, in the Dominican Republic.
In a Spanish-language conversation with USA TODAY Sports after a recent spring training game, Sano brought up Angelica’s passing unprompted and said it made him want to quit baseball and consider suicide until his relatives and a man he knew from his native San Pedro de Macoris intervened.
“I was lost in the world, and there was this temptation to harm myself,” Sano said. “And he sat down with me and said, ‘Calm down. Just like she left, some more will arrive.’ He gave me some positive advice.
“One time, I went out walking, and I got lost in thought. And when I realized it, I was two hours away from my house. Those are things that happen to us as humans, but thankfully everything is OK now.”
Sano, who sports a large tattoo in memory of Angelica on his right forearm, now has a 5-month-old son named Dylan Miguel who has brought him joy and a measure of comfort, but he’s still not over the tragedy. At times he’ll mournfully look at photos of his daughter, while at the same time reminding himself to stay strong for his wife, Daniela.
Sano also needs to maintain his focus as he approaches a critical season in his development as one of the pillars the Twins intend to lean on as they try to attain respectability.
Despite his grief, Sano bounced back strong from missing the 2014 season because of an elbow injury, earning a major league call-up in July 2015, less than two months after turning 22. He tore through American League pitching, hitting 18 home runs in 80 games and compiling a .916 onbase plus slugging percentage to finish third in the rookie of the year voting.
But neither Sano nor fellow foundational piece Byron Buxton progressed as quickly as the club expected last season, when the Twins sank to 59-103, the worst record in the majors and their most losses since moving to Minnesota in 1961.
Sano, who is 6-4, 260-plus pounds, was shifted to right field in an effort to get his bat in the lineup, and he struggled in the field and at the plate, eventually incurring a hamstring injury that sidelined him for June. He did not return to the outfield after that, and the Twins let go of third baseman Trevor Plouffe in the offseason, allowing Sano to return to the position he played for most of his career in the minors.
“He was open-minded about it last year, but it turned into an adventure for everybody,” manager Paul Molitor said. “He’s always wanted to be an infielder. He still thinks he can play shortstop. And he’s been putting in his work over there (at third). It’s not going to be perfect yet, but we’re getting more and more comfortable with how he’s going about his defense.”
There are plenty of questions about how Sano will perform defensively, given his size — he’s still massive even after shedding 15 pounds in the offseason — and the subpar results in 2016, when he committed 15 errors in 42 games at third. He was particularly shaky on pop-ups.
Sano, who turns 24 in May, does have some attributes in his favor, including surprising agility for such a big infielder and a powerful arm that clearly recovered from the 2014 elbow injury, which required Tommy John surgery.
“He has improved his defense a lot,” shortstop Jorge Polanco said. “He’s moving better and has better range. He has slowed the game down, and that helps.”
The Twins would happily take merely adequate fielding if Sano lives up to his hitting potential, which has evoked comparisons to Miguel Cabrera because of his monstrous power and selectivity at the plate.
One significant difference, though, is their ability to put the ball in play. While Cabrera struck out in 22.5% of his plate appearances during his first two seasons, Sano whiffed at a 35.8% rate, often chasing high fastballs or breaking pitches in the dirt. In his first 47 at-bats of the spring, he struck out 22 times.
During the offseason Sano worked with former major leaguer Fernando Tatis on having better weight distribution in his stride and going to the opposite field more regularly. He’s also altering an approach that might have been too passive, the opposite of most young sluggers.
“I used to try to work the count full, but then sometimes I would take fastballs trying to get a walk to get a runner on base. That was a mistake on my part,” said Sano, who batted .236 with 25 homers and a .781 OPS in 116 games last season. “Walks are good, but sometimes you need to be more aggressive at the plate, and that’s something I need to improve on.”
Twins observers also believe playful, fun-loving Sano needs to grow up a bit. He was a highly coveted prospect who received a $3.15 million bonus when he signed as a shortstop in October 2009 at 16, an age first disputed and later confirmed after a bidding war chronicled in the documentary Ballplayer: Pelotero.
Nearly eight years later, Sano is a father again, a central figure in the Twins’ rebuilding plan and a potential star who has rediscovered his comfort level in the infield.
“I’m 100% happy about that,” he said. “I thank God I’m back at my position, and I hope to play the rest of my career at third base.”