The Case to Bring Back Miguel Sanó

I think a minor league deal in St. Paul could work.  But honestly I think Sano needs a fresh start elsewhere.  I still think might sign him for a small salary for 2023.  But who knows?  Maybe he doesn't want to play anymore.  

NO to Strikeout King Sano, things will be just fine without that problem again.

Re-signing him to a minor league deal would be the Twins way. That way he can block the development of younger players that need the experience. Also, if he gets off to a great start in AAA the Twins wouldn't hesitate to bring him up and provide the other teams pitcher with at least 2 or 3 K's per game while killing every rally the other hitters created.

Seriously though, if Arraez can't play 1st base I put Gallo there. Or I move Miranda there and play Farmer at 3rd. There's also the possibility that we see a healthy Kirilloff in 2023. The only way I sign him to a minor league deal is if my intentions are to trade him if he shows any sign of being a big league hitter. Who knows, you might be able to flip him or package him with someone else for a decent prospect if that would happen.

10 hours ago, eric grundmeier said:

Right-handed DH should be left open for Buxton & Miranda.  I just don't see a fit on this team.

 

He goes back to putting up a .900 OPS he fits on any team.  Reality is he most likely cant do that and probably weighs 310 pounds.

The only place he will contribute is Oakland. Would’ve traded him last offseason and had Miranda start opening day last year.

I swear, I thought this was a Randball Stu sattire piece until I got about half-way through.  Then I checked the by-line.   Sorry,  Randball- you blew this chance.

They already have that hitter, and Gallo can play in the field. No room for 2 like that on the roster

4 hours ago, bigdave said:

Good lord, no way. He'll be injured by May and will be another wasted spot on the roster. Let him be some other team's problem.

Don't you talk about Alex Kiriloff like that.  Or Trevor Larnach.

Been watching this team for 50 years.  Most entertaining player since a guy that used to wear # 3.

I'm finally able to access TD. I love Sano's strength & quickness, he had a lot of potential to be a HR king. This organization has a fetish about "moonshots" especially after '19. They haven't been able to fix him but IMO has added to his problem. I think the absence of Cruz & injuries last year hasn't help either. 

A few days ago I listened to a NYY podcaster that blamed the Yankees for ruining potential power sluggers like Sanchez & Torres by over tweaking their swing, thus losing their beautiful natural swing. The Twins haven't been able to fix Sanchez, he got worse. They weren't able to fix Sano & I don't think they can fix Gallo. They wasted the money that they could have been used elsewhere, taken away ABs that should be given to our own, took a roster spot for a much needed RH OF and maybe forced to away Kepler in a bad trade. 

17 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

I read somewhere that they had a nutritionist for him.  They also had a grand plan for him to get in shape the year they experimented with him in the OF.  The appearance is that he is just not that committed.  He repeatedly showed up for spring training out of shape even with 10s of millions on the line.  Some guys are more committed than others.  I Never liked the extension because he appeared to be someone who is not fully committed.

I knew they tried, but not how, to get him in better shape.

Again, in the minors, he does not take a roster spot on the Twins.

If he gets fixed, lottery long shot to be honest, then the Twins can decide WHAT to do.  Keep him, trade him, etc...

But if they unlock his full potential of his bat, I suspect 99.44% of this is in his head, then he is truly worth taking a minor league flyer on him.

Note: This is not going to happen.  I think the business side of the Twins are just going to let him go.

20 hours ago, DFlow said:

The brutal truth behind Sano is that he has two month spells at time where he is completely useless and it happens every year (sometimes twice!). Everyone understands the ups and downs of baseball seasons, but for someone with no positional value, it's imperative that your bat carries you. Sano's just does not and holds up a roster spot. I'd rather gamble on Kiriloff's wrist. 

Kind of like Dozier but they ran him out everyday.  Kepler hasn't been the same for at least two years.  

I would do it.  I just don't think he is done.  Maybe with Correa, the newer bench coach and medical staff they can bring him around and if he can do what we thought, we need him!

Alan Page played college football at Notre Dame at somewhere between 275-295 pounds. He was the first defensive player in NFL history to get a single vote and subsequently won the MVP award in the NFL as a Viking playing at 245-275 pounds. Page became concerned about how the weight he carried would affect his health long term. He is a runner and dropped his weight to 218 pounds when Coach Grant demanded he add back weight. Page refused, wound up playing his last four years quite effectively with the Chicago Bears. 

I wonder if Sano has any concerns about his weight. The past few years, we saw several examples of the big man huffing and puffing after scoring from second base on a single. Sano is extremely muscular but also well over 100 pounds larger than he was as an 18 year old. Honestly, I don't want to see Sano have a heart attack. His health and attention to conditioning are his only paths back to MLB. I wonder what  Miguel Sano at 220 pounds could accomplish after rebuilding his swing and quickness.

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!!

I think it's pretty unlikely that he'd come back here on a minor league deal. Pride will almost certainly get in the way, even if it might be a good idea. (I suspect someone will still offer him an MLB deal at least at league minimum)

I think we just need to move on from Sano. Even if we brought him back, he'd be looked at to be a part-time player, and Sano isn't actually a guy who has real splits. he thumps righties and lefties about the same over his career, and in signing him you'd be hoping he gets back to career norms. He's got a rough injury history at this point, plays 1B poorly and we don't need/want a full-time DH.

The MLB roster is pretty tight, the 40-man is pretty tight, and pride will prevent him from signing a minor league deal. Time to move on. And while sano never hit the heights that were predicted for him, he had multiple years as a productive MLB player for the twins, gave us many highlight reel moonshot HRs (my goodness, he hit some bombs...and some lasers! the moonshots were always the more impressive, probably because you had more time to admire them, but it was also pretty fun when he hit a laser shot that never got more than 20 ft off the ground into the seat too...), and in the end provided more value to the team than we spent on him. He wasn't a bad player, just an inconsistent, incomplete, and injured one.

I am in favor of a minor league deal with no 40 man roster spot promised. 
My wife and I were at a game his rookie year, it may have been his first game or first start. My memory is less reliable as I age, but I think Sano hit a solo home run early. I told my wife to remember seeing his first because there would be a lot more to come. The more impressive at bat came later, with the bases loaded. I fully expected an over anxious rookie to expand the strike zone, but he worked a walk. 
My memory may be inaccurate but the point remains; he has shown abilities at the major league level that many prospects are never able to achieve. What has been lacking is consistency and growth. Keep in mind he was a very highly rated international prospect (remember the documentary) who signed a huge contract and remained a top prospect throughout his minor league career. He then signed a multi million dollar contract in his mid 20’s. Somehow we are surprised when a teenager coming out of the devastating poverty of Haiti (via the DR) is adversely impacted by wealth and fame in the US. 
All of this to say that if any player has ever been at a defining crossroads in his career it is Sano. I tend to think the fire that made him what he was in his early 20’s has gone out and can’t be reignited. However; he is still young enough and talented enough, that if he isn’t totally complacent and satisfied with what he has accomplished he could very conceivably reignite the fire and reward some team with a half dozen years of RH power production. I would say it is worth the low level risk of a minor league deal. 

On 1/16/2023 at 8:19 AM, Jeremy Nygaard said:

Miguel Sanó is one of the biggest Twins disappointments in club history; a global top prospect who never lived up to his billing.

...a 34-home run year in 2019 where Sanó post a career-high .923 OPS.

 

 

These two sentences from your opening post seem more than a bit contradictory to me. 

Also, you briefly mentioned his 2015 season, but you didn't include that he finished third in AL Rookie of the Year voting despite playing only half a season.

Both of these examples are what was hoped for, his "billing" as you termed it, at those stages in his career.

While he certainly has regressed since 2019, saying that he never lived up to his billing is simply not a true statement.

Wave big paychecks in front of David Ortiz and Lawrence Taylor to mentor him. There’s a couple of dudes who know how to party and still get the job done.

On 1/16/2023 at 1:57 PM, Jeremy Nygaard said:

Sano has always been a polarizing dude, so I'm not shocked at the responses. I'm not suggesting a big-league deal - and I have no idea about the willingness to either sign a minor-league deal or if he has the desire to still ball - but the Saints aren't going to be trotting out the "next big thing" anytime soon, so there's not downside of getting Sano on a minor-league deal if he's interested (and if he is, a change of scenery would probably be best for him anway).

The reality is the Twins/Saints are most likely to sign some random MILB FA to fill the role.

In 2022, Curtis Terry was the primary first baseman. In 2021, Tomas Telis, Damek Tomscha and Sherman Johnson each manned first for over 20 games. My point is that if I have to choose between Sano and someone like those guys listed, the choice shouldn't be hard... and there's no risk, yet the possibility of some reward.

 

This is the best rationale - why not see if he can get it back and besides, we don’t have anyone else at AAA on the way up to be blocked. I don’t know the minor league system well enough to know if the latter half of that is true. If it is, I guess why not? You have to have a quick finger on the trigger though. Give him 6-8 weeks to show something max. 

No way. He was horrible. Talk about a guy who was suppose to lead us to the promise land and got a little worse every year he played. Turn the page. 

What exactly has Sano shown that would warrant putting tons and tons of extra effort and resources into trying to prop him back up to being an acceptable ML-caliber player? Why him over any number of other players?

On a side note, has there been any articles speaking to his conditioning? That would be the only contributing facto rin my mind. IF with his career on teh line after getting released, he has STILL not taken the offseason to focus 100% on his weight/conditioning/health/whatever, then he is not focused enough on his career.

IF on the other hand he would have used the offseason to lose weight (takes pressure off those knees), get into yoga or some form of strenght & flexibility program. Then I would 100% offer him a deal.

At his age he still has at least a decetn chance of making some godo money over the next 5 years or so. But it starts with a rebound year this year, followed by a prove it wasnt a fluke year next year, adn then he could sign a 2-3 year deal for $15-20M plus. Still good money to be made in this game, and if he hasn't focused on this in the offseason, then he never will.