Top Twins prospect Miguel Sano will have Tommy John surgery, La Velle E. Neal III of StarTribune.com reports. Via MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger (on Twitter), the Twins have since confirmed that Sano will miss the entire 2014 season. Sano has had trouble with his ulnar collateral ligament going back to last season, and he injured it on Thursday while making a throw. MLB.com ranks Sano the fourth-best prospect in baseball (with another Twins prospect, Byron Buxton, coming in at No. 1). Sano, 20, hit .280/.382/.610 between Class A+ and Double-A last season. Here are more notes from the American League.
- The Astros do not sound likely to trade catcher Jason Castro anytime soon, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports. This offseason, several teams asked the Astros about Castro, but the Astros feel Castro's play and leadership are too valuable to deal right now. "We take all of those elements into account, and we really feel he's a player we can't be without at this point," says GM Jeff Luhnow. Castro, 26, will make $2.45MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility in 2014. He hit .276/.350/.485 in 491 plate appearances last season.
- The Tigers have agreed to terms with eight pre-arbitration players, according to a team release: pitchers Melvin Mercedes, Bruce Rondon, Jose Alvarez and Ian Krol, catcher Bryan Holaday, and infielders Steve Lombardozzi, Francisco Martinez and Hernan Perez. Those players will all likely receive deals near the league minimum. The Tigers now have their entire 40-man roster under contract for 2014.
You don’t even have to be a Twins fan for the news about Sano to bum you out. Anyone who loves baseball in general should view this as terrible news. You always want the best young players to play and it’s awful to see someone this talented get seriously injured and miss a lot of time.
Devastating news. I was really hoping to see Sano at Target Field later this year. I thought Tommy John for position players didn’t take as long to recover, are the Twins just being extra careful or is the timetable longer than 6-7 months?
Top 50 prospect from the Padres, Rymer Liriano missed last year with it. I think it’s slightly less, but instead of 11-14 months like it is for pitchers its 8-10.
Even at missing 6 months, he’s missed the entire 2014 season essentially… Even being a Tigers fan and division rival, this is sad news as a baseball fan
It is essentially the whole season, but at the end of what is probably going to be a disappointing season it would be nice to see him get even a few reps in the minors. I just hope this doesn’t completely kill his chances at sticking at third.
Lunhow and Castro should sit down and talk extension.
Castro is 27 has 4 years of team control left, they should trade him for a group of players that can help them win sooner. He’s too old for this team.
A win-now team like Oakland should offer the younger Derek Norris, Dan Straily, Sean Doolittle and any prospects not named Addison Russell for him.
Hopefully by getting the TJ surgery now Sano will have plenty of healthy baseball in the near future.
He’s young and will bounce back. He’ll probably be ready for ST next year.
Care to elaborate? He surely isn’t the number 4 prospect in baseball based on ‘power and that’s all’.
And I’ve seen no news break on him lying about his name or age or anything that could effect his baseball status.
I think you’re seriously underrating how good Sano’s power is. He has plus-plus or possibly even an 80 power with a hit tool that is above average. He probably has the most usable power in all of the minors. He also has a strong arm that should be fine after the surgery. Sure he is a poor defender and not very fast, but his power is very legit and he is about as sure as any prospect to hit 30+ HR at the MLB level.
Even if the unsubstantiated claims you are throwing around are true, as a 22 yo, he is still young and bonafide top prospect.