Has Miguel Sanó Increased His Trade Value?

[jmlease1]

20 hours ago, bean5302 said:

I haven't heard of this, but I have no reason to doubt it. That said, a scrub level MLB talent like Sano doesn't really have a lot of say in what position they play or if they even get an MLB contract at all. If Sano wants an MLB contract after 2022 which involves standing on the field when that team's pitching staff is on the mound, he's going to need to field dramatically better. Sano's defensive value is actually lower than full time DH, Nelson Cruz, this year. I mean... a -48.3 UZR/150 at first base? How is that even possible?

Scrub-level? tell us how you really feel about him. (PS: he ain't scrub level)

Sano's trade value hasn't changed that much because sluggers with limited positional flexibility are relatively easy to find, but also because outside of the elite players they can have a fair amount of variance year to year. If a team was confident that second-half Sano is who he's going to be next season, they might be interested, but the risk of inconsistency weighed against his contract is going to be too high for most teams. Basically, no one is going to trade for Sano at $9.25M with a $2.75M buyout if they can get CJ Cron for $7M total. or if they can sign someone like Cron at league minimum on a make-good contract like the Rockies did this year with Cron. That's the fundamental problem we have in dealing Sano: last off-season someone like Cron was available for basically nothing. And there's almost always going to be that guy on the market...but it's a guessing game as to which one pans out.

Sano had such a rough start (and played pretty poorly last year) that it feels like opinions have hardened on him. There's a lot of people in Twins Territory for whom he will probably never be able to do enough to satisfy, because he's never going to hit .300, and he's never not going to have 150+ Ks. But second-half Sano, or 2017 Sano, or 2019 Sano is a dangerous force in the lineup. Kinda feels like a lot of people have already decided that he's going to be 2018 or 2020 Sano in 2022. 

 

[stringer bell]

There hasn't been a huge amount of growth in Sano's offensive production through the years. He should be entering the peak of his career, but he's no better than his rookie campaign. Comparing him to the other former top 5 prospect, Buxton has shown notable improvement as a hitter in the last two years. 

I'm glad he's stayed relatively healthy and he has reached 30 homers for the second time. I just think the ceiling for Sano has diminished. When he came to the majors, I thought Miggy could become much more than he has become.

[bean5302]

8 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Scrub-level? tell us how you really feel about him. (PS: he ain't scrub level)...

 

Scrub is a term from Fangraphs library/glossary used to describe players who provide 0-1 WAR, It's not a term I created. Sano has provided 0-1 WAR in 3 of his past 4 seasons. By definition, Sano is "Scrub" level and has been for a while https://library.fangraphs.com/misc/war/

While it can be tempting to ignore portions of his work and pretend a bad month or two didn't happen, Sano is prone to long cold streaks so throwing out a bad month and pretending it didn't happen isn't realistic when evaluating who he is as a player now or in the future.