Young Twins slugger Miguel Sano has announced that he’s hired Roc Nation Sports as his new agency. Roc Nation represents several other high-profile baseball players, including Robinson Cano and Yoenis Cespedes.
Sano, 22, had an impressive debut last year for Minnesota after long occupying prime real estate on top-prospect charts. In 335 trips to the plate, he slashed a robust .269/.385/.530 with 18 long balls. While his 119 strikeouts are certainly cause for some concern, and Sano benefited from a sky-high .396 BABIP, there’s no denying his huge talent and remarkable power with the bat.
Of course, Sano accumulated most of those numbers while slotting in as Minnesota’s DH. There’s some uncertainty as to how the team will utilize him moving forward. He has spent most of his minor league career at third base, but all indications are that the towering youngster is going to be tried in the corner outfield for the 2016 season.
Because he was held down for much of last season, Sano is still controllable through 2021 and does not project to qualify for Super Two status. That means he won’t even be arb-eligible until 2019, though if he continues to drive the ball as he has then he could get expensive very quickly once he reaches eligibility.
Roc Nation will presumably focus its initial efforts on marketing the budding star, although it’s not impossible to imagine some extension interest from the Twins coming sooner rather than later. Teams have increasingly broached the concept of long-term arrangements with rather raw and unproven talent over recent years. Of course, such arrangements require motivation on both sides. In this case, Sano still comes with his share of risk. And it’s worth bearing in mind, on the other side of the coin, that he already landed a big bonus as an amateur.
With any luck at all, when this dude signs a contract, it’s gonna be freakin huge.