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Sano Situation


Doc Munson

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OK, with Sano on rehad assignment that means we are getting closer to decision time.

After going 0-3 in his first game he now has an exciting slash line of .313/..421/.750 for a 1.171  OPS.  with just TWO strikeouts in 18 ABs!!!!!

PRETTY EXCITING!!!  Except for the fact that it against Rookie League talent, so this should be the expected baseline. Still it is better than  the alternative.

 

SO...

What are the plans for when he returns?  Kirilloff is starting to hit. Miranda is hitting as well now. so that covers 1B & DH. Maybe We move Kirilloff back to the OF and Miranda to 1B with Sano DH?  BUT Nick Gordon is actually playing very well also.  Plays a better defense (forget last nights play), and has actually been more productive than Kirilloff, so do you want to make that move?  You could move Miranda to 3B and have Sano DH, but while Urshela has not been spectacular, he has been pretty good overall. The comparison here is not who is better between him or Miranda (would clearly be Miranda lately) but is it better to have Urshela's bat in the lineup over Sano, here is where it could be a push.

Someone has to go when he comes back. It will most likely be someone like Garlick. No big loss there. But Does Sano come back as bench player? He doesnt have much positional flexibility, and you would like bench players to be able to play some defense. There is the R/L platoon option with Kirilloff and Sano. 

What about trade values?

Sano;s trade value would be low, unless he comes back on fire.  Even if Sano comes back and is "above average" is he "$14M" good for next year? very doubtful. So more than likely he is gone after this year anyways, so do we really care what we get in return (as much as I hate seeing him go)?

So the question is...

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH SANO BEFOR ETHE TRADE DEADLINE WHEN HE COMES BACK???

This is not an educational article, but an "I am curious to what you all think" article.  What would you do?

 

Personally I would dangle an underperfoming Sano who still has TONS of power potential to the Mets for 2 players who have underperformed but have potential. potential for potential.

 

Sano for Dom Smith & Thomas Szapucki.

Dom, is a potential Gold Glover who alos has the defensive flexibilty to play the OF. He has hit poorly the last 2 years, but he has shown he can hit, and has historically been a "2nd half hitter" and has shown some signs lately.  Thomas Szapucki, is a AAAA type pitcher with great stuff who has had difficulty staying healthy. He could help the rotation. a career 3.02 MiLB ERA, with a 3.86 this year, he has been built up to over 5+ IP per game.  He could also be a great lefty out of the bullpen as evidenced by his 65K in 49 IP (to go along with a higher than you would like 24 BB).  With Scherzer and deGrom both coming back there is no need for Szapucki in NY, and the one area they could use help at is getting more pop out of DH.  To me this is a perfect swap.   Low risk on both sides, high potential on both sides. positional fits on both sides.

This does not necessarily SOLVE any big problems/holes, but it also does not inhibit any other potential moves either.

What say you

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I don't really think the Twins are going to get that much for Sano, muchless anything worthwhile.

My guess is that Sano gets included with a high-ranking prospect in a trade. For example: Jordan Balozovich + Sano for Tyler Mahle. Something like that. Basically the Twins are going to say to the other team "you're going to have to take Sano off our hands" when they make the trade. Unfortunately this means the Twins will probably lose a higher valued prospect than they would have if they didn't include Sano.

The Twins may also simply trade Kirilloff as the main piece in a package for a guy like Montas or Castillo, and have Sano be the primary 1B-DH moving forward.

Another option is that they send Celestino down, keep Sano on the roster and just hope he catches fire. He's done so in the past. Betting on Sano will be a big gamble in the 2nd half.

They are in a tough spot for sure.

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There may be a team that will be willing to take a flyer on Sano, but unless you pay for the contract and buy out, you are not getting much of value for him.  He does have potential upside and maybe a new home could unlock it.  He is also one that if hot can carry a team through the playoffs, but could also be an auto strike out as well.  

You also point out that we have pretty much no where to play him right now, so why would a team be willing to give up much, if there is a chance we DFA him anyways.  Unless he looks amazing during his rehab I would not be surprised if we DFA him and any team can pick him up off waivers or sign him after clears and he becomes FA. 

Unless a team thinks he will be something more than he has, I doubt anyone gives up anything of much value to us at MLB level for him. 

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Now that Arraez has shown a knack for decent defense at 1B we are pretty stacked there and at DH. Would be nice if Sano tears the cover off the ball and makes a tough decision. It wasn't that long ago when he came up and looked like a potential .280 hitter with unbelievable power. That guy would be welcomed back.

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I think the writing is on the wall for Sano as far as the 14 million option, The problem is, even if he comes back and hits 30 home runs, we still have no reason to have confidence in him next year because we know how streaky he is. If he had been able to play well from June until September, we might be able to say he'd turned a corner, but he can't prove anything in half a season that we don't already know,

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Both the players suggested by the article are major leaguers, meaning that room for them both must be made on the 40-man roster.  It's hard enough to figure out how to add Sano himself back to the 40 (he's off because of being on the injured list) - so I think any trade speculation needs to include the roster implications at the same time.  What two current players get dropped from the 40-man to make room?  (And I don't think they can both be pitchers, because I don't see our FO dropping a pitcher to add a hitter.)

And then if room is made on the 40, you still have to decide whom to remove from the 26-man major league roster - a few of our current major leaguers have minor-league options but most either can't be sent to St Paul or else are performing too well for us to want to.

I don't have a good answer to these questions and thus I don't see the proposed trade as solving anything practical.

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A month ago I would've thought sending Celestino down was crazy, but I could see it now, depending on general OF health.

And I agree that a position player for pitcher swap is unlikely. But about half the bullpen could be optioned/outrighted without much of a hit to roster quality overall.

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Reading the San Diego blogs, rumors are that they are looking to get salary relief by dumping Snell or Clevinger, with the former a more desirable choice because of salary.  This dovetails well with Sano's situation in Minny.  In case you haven't looked, Snell seems to have returned to form in his last outing(11Ks).  Granted, he has been a disappointment overall but he seems to have regained his speed and control.  This would be a win-win for both teams, with the Twins perhaps having to throw in some money or a midlevel prospect.  There is no place on this team now for Sano with rise of Arraez, Kirillof and Miranda.  The Twins offense is perking nicely now.  What they need is pitching.  Snell is well worth the gamble, especially if we are looking to end our playoff doldrums.

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my God...not even close.....Urshela over Sano by a landslide. Urshela has played GREAT this year..and it seems no one is noticing. Arraez has been our MVP...Correa and Buxton following ( and just my opinion ..no one hitting .218 should ever make an All star team ). There is no room for Sano this year with Kiriloff and Miranda picking it up...and Polanco back. Dont need a DH striking out 3 of 4 times per game..no thank you

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I would be open to trading Urshela.....hasn't been what we thought we were getting....if you can get something for him I would....he won't be here next year.....so get something now and free up the roster spot....

Sano needs to adjust, no one will take his contract so let it run out and use him as a DH and PH the rest of the year....but would get all existing players in the lineup in front of him.  

 

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For once I'm speechless ,,,

According to Rocco sano has to be hitting on all cylinders before being  reactivated  , and Rocco says how ever long it takes for that to happen  ,,,

His words not mine 

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Let's see what Sano does against more seasoned pitching before proclaiming that we have a log jam here.  

If Sano does seem to have something left in the tank against higher level talent, then maybe you can package him with a prospect to get a pending free agent reliver.  There are a lot of ifs in that scenario.  I could see a losing team taking on his contract for the rest of the season to get a better prospect.  And that's what I think will probably happen.

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If you trade for Sano, do you take on his remaining contract for this season? You also have to be willing to pick up the option (or pay the option out) for next season.

Why not just wait and let him become a free agent.

Or see if the Twins release him come August.

Sadly, if he becomes playable, the Twins will have to roster him and play him as they have $10 million reasons to try and get soemthing out of him this season, unless he is just so terribly horrible........

 

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8 hours ago, mike8791 said:

Reading the San Diego blogs, rumors are that they are looking to get salary relief by dumping Snell or Clevinger, with the former a more desirable choice because of salary.  This dovetails well with Sano's situation in Minny.  In case you haven't looked, Snell seems to have returned to form in his last outing(11Ks).  Granted, he has been a disappointment overall but he seems to have regained his speed and control.  This would be a win-win for both teams, with the Twins perhaps having to throw in some money or a midlevel prospect.  There is no place on this team now for Sano with rise of Arraez, Kirillof and Miranda.  The Twins offense is perking nicely now.  What they need is pitching.  Snell is well worth the gamble, especially if we are looking to end our playoff doldrums.

Two interesting ideas here. Trade Sano to San Diego for Snell for salary reasons. Snell isn’t that far removed from being really good and could possibly help the Twins.The other idea expressed here is to trade Urshela, which opens up third for 

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To finish my previous thought, Sano for Snell is intriguing but Snell has a $16 million contract for 2023 so I don’t see the Twins picking that up unless San Diego picks up a large chunk. Also the notion suggested elsewhere to trade Urshela opens up third for Miranda if they think he is ready. Miranda is looking like a major league hitter. . Sano is very aggravating to watch as the strikeouts pile up at a 45% rate.  He looked like a lesser version of Miguel Cabrera when he came up, hitting balls to all fields and able to hit it out anywhere. But then he got pull happy and he’s now a rally killer. Can’t trade him let him walk..

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1 hour ago, Rosterman said:

You also have to be willing to pick up the option (or pay the option out) for next season.

Sadly, if he becomes playable, the Twins will have to roster him and play him as they have $10 million reasons to try and get soemthing out of him this season, unless he is just so terribly horrible........

 

Is picking up his option written into his contract? Is that a standard of any contract with an option in it?

Picking up Sanó’s contract now would cost in the neighborhood of $4.5M. That isn’t nothing, but only 45% of $10M. 

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Move rehab to AAA and see what results are.

Need to get mutiliple teams interested, maybe that gets you more value.

The 40man roster situation is interesting.  This is why FO gets paid the big $$

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Try and use him in a trade for a pitcher.  He is done on this team. I don't want him to come back up to strike out 4 times a night.  Like i always say for Sano, he swings so hard that he will never be consistent.  Slow it down and simply do not swing at anything low and outside or high fastballs.  But Sano can never learn or adapt and will just swing out of his shoes and continue to swing and miss at the same two located pitches every single time. 

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On 7/12/2022 at 9:12 AM, mike8791 said:

Reading the San Diego blogs, rumors are that they are looking to get salary relief by dumping Snell or Clevinger, with the former a more desirable choice because of salary.  This dovetails well with Sano's situation in Minny.  In case you haven't looked, Snell seems to have returned to form in his last outing(11Ks).  Granted, he has been a disappointment overall but he seems to have regained his speed and control.  This would be a win-win for both teams, with the Twins perhaps having to throw in some money or a midlevel prospect.  There is no place on this team now for Sano with rise of Arraez, Kirillof and Miranda.  The Twins offense is perking nicely now.  What they need is pitching.  Snell is well worth the gamble, especially if we are looking to end our playoff doldrums.

Snell vs. Sano
2022 - $12.5MM vs. $9.25MM
2023 - $16.0MM vs. $14.0MM or $2.75MM buyout

https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2022/06/30/the-cubs-padres-buy-a-prospect-trade-rumors-may-come-back-but-with-a-twist/

I'm assuming that's the article you're sourcing. The Padres are potentially looking to get relief Snell by adding a prospect to the mix for the acquiring team so the Padres can avoid the threshold penalty. Looks like they're about $5MM over right now so dumping all of Snell's contract would probably get them there. Picking up Sano's contract would pretty much nullify the whole advantage while losing a good starter for a bad position player.

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