Miguel Sano won’t join the Twins on their upcoming road trip and he is headed to the 10-day DL due to a stress reaction in his left shin, the slugger told reporters (including Chad Graff of the St. Paul Pioneer Press). No move has yet been announced by the team, though Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press reports that Kennys Vargas was removed from the Triple-A lineup today and will replace Sano on Minnesota’s 25-man roster.
Sano fouled a ball off his shin on Friday, and then left Saturday’s game early due to continued soreness (the Twins used Sano as the DH on Saturday to limit his time on his feet). The seriousness of Sano’s injury or a timetable for his return isn’t yet known.
Going without Sano’s bat for even the minimum 10 days is a blow to a Twins team that is thick in the midst of the AL wild card hunt, plus still with an outside shot at catching the Indians for first place in the AL Central. Sano is hitting .267/.356/.514 with 27 homers through 475 plate appearances, seemingly making the breakout from blue chip prospect to established big league hitter. While he’s had some good fortune in the form of a .379 BABIP and there is still a lot of swing-and-miss in Sano’s approach (a league-high 170 strikeouts), he makes little mistake when he does make contact — his 45.3% hard-hit ball rate ranks fifth among all qualified hitters in baseball this season.
Vargas will be called up to handle DH duties or perhaps spell Joe Mauer at first base, while Sano’s customary spot at third base will likely be filled by Eduardo Escobar and Ehire Adrianza. Needless to say, that’s a big dropoff in production for a Twins team that is already just middle-of-the-pack in most offensive categories, so clearly Minnesota needs Sano back soon if the team is to continue its surprising push towards a playoff spot.
They need to trade Vargas so he can get regular ABs, I so badly want to see what he can do with the bat, given a chance to really prove himself.
Agreed… he could be the next Big Papi.
Lol….just cuz someone’s fat and Latino does not make them the next big papi. Ortiz had talent. Vargas…..not so much.
I suspect he wasn’t saying he’s going to produce like Big Papi, but rather a similar player that couldn’t figure it out in Minnesota after a few years but went on to flourish elsewhere.
i’ve always thought he has the potential to be a big power bat. twins never seem to give him a consistent chance.
He’s has his chances with the big league club. If he was good he would’ve stuck.
Had*
I’ve said it before but I strongly dislike and reject the notion that BABIP is intrinsically tied in to luck. Virtually every time I see it mentioned it’s said the person is lucky or unlucky, but nothing else is mentioned. Despite the fact that luck is only a (probably small) component of it
This article specifically says he has had “good fortune” by having a BABIP that high then follows it up by saying he hits the ball hard more than the majority of the league as if it’s not related. The sentence actually reads that they’re completely UNrelated.
While I do agree that it’s a bit of a logical inconsistency, I don’t believe that anybody’s true talent BABIP is .380. The abundance of hard contact is certainly partially responsible for Sano’ s ball – in – play results, but there’s likely some luck involved as well, especially since a GB:FB ratio below 1:1 isn’t usually a predictor of a high BABIP
FWIW, Sano’s xwOBA per Baseball Savant is .351, while his actual mark is .365, which would support the idea that he’s been slightly lucky this season
Sano has 28 homeruns.