Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey addressed the traffic incident involving Miguel Sano today (subscription link via Dan Hayes of The Athletic), telling reporters that “what has been most recently reported is what we are aware of around the accident.” Sano is not facing criminal charges after inadvertently backing into a police officer with his truck, as Dominican police officials have issued a statement declaring the incident to be accidental in nature, adding that Sano has been cooperative and offered to pay the medical expenses for the officer, who was a childhood classmate of Sano. That issue aside, Falvey also acknowledged that Sano is “at an important crossroads in his career” following a disastrous 2018 season. As Hayes notes, Sano reported to Spring Training in 2018 out of shape after offseason surgery to insert a titanium rod into his shin last winter prevented him from going through a full offseason workout regimen. The organizational hope will be that a full offseason can help Sano be better positioned for success in 2019. Falvey indicates that the Twins will “put resources around [Sano] and create a certain level of expectations” that’ll be monitored throughout the winter.
More news and notes out of Minneapolis…
- The Twins may not get a decision from Joe Mauer until after the conclusion of the postseason, writes La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Realistically, free agency doesn’t begin for a period of time here,” said Falvey of Mauer’s impending retirement decision. “We’re still in the window of playoff baseball. I think some time after that would be appropriate time to have any subsequent dialogue.” Still, Falvey said that the Twins have already discussed with Mauer what a potential return could look like, adding that the team made clear to Mauer’s camp that he would “certainly” be welcome back for a 16th season.
- Utility infielder Ehire Adrianza underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left (non-throwing) shoulder, Levine announced Tuesday (Twitter link via Hayes). Rayner Rico of SportsVenezuela.com first reported that Adrianza would require surgery. The procedure comes with a projected recovery time of three to four months, which would put Adrianza in line to be ready for Spring Training. The 29-year-old Adrianza hit .251/.301/.379 this season in a career-high 366 plate appearances while playing shortstop, second base, third base, left field and first base. The switch-hitter has never contributed much from an offensive standpoint in the Majors, but he’s generally been regarded as a solid defender. He’ll be arbitration-eligible for the second time this winter and has a $1.8MM projected salary for 2019, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.
Broken-legged Cop: “Oh, no worries. It’s more of a flesh wound, really.”
You dont think Sano made a 100k donation to the officers favorite charity (c/o himself) ?
It was also his childhood friend
First, love the python thought SO but, the critique of Sano is getting old fast. People have been jumping on the hate bandwagon ever since that horrendous reporter posted that without facts. Not specifically saying it’s you just generally stating that the guy made a mistake, did the right thing stayed with the officer and paid his bill while admitting his fault. Twins response is rediculious to this. They should have supported Sano, just my thoughts.
“Horrendous reporter”? Trashy comments like these belong on NFL or political websites.
maybe Mauer will a player/manager. that would be awsome, but unlikely since it hasn’t happen since 1985 or was 1986.
You’ll never see it.
Pretty sure there was a player manager this year on the last day of the season
Yeah I’m sure you’ll see that over the course of 162 games. I’m positive no issues would ever come up in that clubhouse. Particularly if the Manager penciled his name in while he was in a Bad slump.
Depends on how much he wagered on the game.
Cool thought. But probably won’t happen.
Maybe Mauer should donate his money back to the Twins . That albatross of contract killed the Twinkies.
False narrative.
Was Mauer overpaid? yeah probably but I don’t think his contract was ever a real burden they were generally competitive throughout the duration of that contract. It will be interesting to see what happens next without a large commitment to anyone on the roster currently.
It depends on how you define “generally competitive”. Since the contract took effect in 2011 the Twins had 2 years over .500 and 1 postseason appearance.
Can’t help but think $25MM on a team with a payroll of $125MM is quite significant. That’s 20% of their payroll going to one person on a 25 man roster. And it’s a player with 1 WAR.
21.9 bWAR throughout the extension? Like Jeb said, he was probably overpaid, but that contract was not a burden.
Exactly; while the concussion issues that ended his catching career reduced his value, Mauer was still a valuable player, even as an underpowered first baseman; in the Wally Joyner mode. He is probably a fringe Hall of Famer; if he stuck around a few more years to get to 2500 hits or so he’d probably be in. But his contract wasn’t really an albatross, not like the Greinke or Hosmer contracts.
Except that Greinke has averaged 4.2 WAR in the past three years with the Diamondbacks. And during that time made the All-Star team twice.
I only bring up the Greinke contract because the D-Backs are pushed up against their budget limit, and they may have to deal Goldschmidt because of that. Goldschmidt is a more valuable asset than Greinke.
Depends on what perspective you take on Mauer’s contract…Fans and non-Minnesota folk largely look at on the field production. The contract doesn’t look so great if that’s your only perpective.
Mauer was worth that money to management regardless of his production throughout the contract. Home grown talent from a man who’s never been in any controversy whatsoever given a big contract as the team was moving into a new stadium.
The contract may have been an albatross for any other team he would’ve signed with, but the deal was frankly a bargain for the Twins.
Yea definitely Minny born with that response . Still the biggest contract for a catcher ever. That tells you how bad it was considering his production virtually ceased to exist after a couple years of the contract.. but hey homegrown looks good in local ads
I’ll stop bashing Mauer. He was overpaid. I wish I was overpaid