Article: No Suspension For Miguel Sano

[Seth Stohs]

FORT MYERS - On Friday afternoon, MLB announced that Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano will not be suspended for sexual assault allegations. MLB has been investigating Sano since early January.The Twins 2017 All Star third baseman will not be suspended after an MLB investigation for sexual assault.

 

In a statement from MLB:

 

"The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball has completed its investigation into an assault allegation made against Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano. The comprehensive investigation included interviews of more than 20 individuals, including Sano and the complainant, as well as a review of available documents, including communication records.

 

At the conclusion of the investigation, the Office of the Commissioner found that there was insufficient evidence to support a disciplinary determination against Sano, due to conflicting and inconsistent witness accounts and the absence of contemporaneous substantiation. Barring the receipt of any new information or evidence, the Office of the Commissioner will not impose discipline on Sano in connection with the alleged incident."

 

Through the MLB Players Association, Miguel Sano released the following statement.

 

"I want to thank Major League Baseball for conducting a thorough investigation and I'm happy to put this behind me. I look forward to focusing on the upcoming season and playing alongside my teammates. I want to thank my family, friends, the Players Association, the Minnesota Twins and my fans for their continued support. "

 

The Twins issued as statement as well.

 

"The Minnesota Twins fully support the join MLB-MLBPA policy which governs serious matters of this nature. The Twins are pleased that the Commissioner's Office has concluded its investigation with respect to Miguel Sano. Miguel can now return his sole focus to the season ahead. Per team protocol, the Twins will not comment further on this matter."

More to come.

 

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[slash129]

This is great news!!!

[Natron]

I don't know if I'd say this "great" news... Or bad news. It's just news. I still feel incredibly itchy and uncomfortable with the whole situation.

[darin617]

Now we just need to hope he can stay healthy and get back to his form before the injury.

[Ted Schwerzler]

A helpful reminder...In situations like this, there are no winners or losers, just conclusions. Celebrating or defaming either party is not productive and only looks poor for yourself.

 

With that said, I look forward to hopefully seeing a full season's worth of contributions from Sano.

[luckylager]

Hopefully, Miguel has learned something from this. A good time to mature and start taking his baseball career seriously.

[slash129]

 

A helpful reminder...In situations like this, there are no winners or losers, just conclusions. Celebrating or defaming either party is not productive and only looks poor for yourself.

 

With that said, I look forward to hopefully seeing a full season's worth of contributions from Sano.

 

Not much difference between celebrating the fact that the Twins will have Sano and looking forward to the Twins having Sano.

[prouster]

Having a player of Sano's caliber in the lineup certainly helps the team.

 

But this still feels pretty gross.

[Puckett34]

Wouldn't call it great news.    Still unfortunate and disappointing to have even a accusation levied upon him.    It will still take a long time for Sano to put this behind him.   Whole situation, is as others have said, uncomfortable.

[Squirrel]

A helpful reminder...In situations like this, there are no winners or losers, just conclusions. Celebrating or defaming either party is not productive and only looks poor for yourself.

 

With that said, I look forward to hopefully seeing a full season's worth of contributions from Sano.

Very well stated. And, officially, as a moderator, I hope others will follow suit.

[yarnivek1972]

It’s not likely to be an issue that goes away, particularly in the current climate.

 

Just about guarantee there will be protests at the Twins home opener and that Sano will hear all kinds of epitaphs thrown at him this year and beyond. It’s a distraction the team doesn’t need and one that Sano may or may not handle well.

 

I think I would almost rather have seen a 10 game or so suspension. That may have done more to “put this to bed” so to speak.

 

We’ll see how it plays out, but my guess this is far from the end of the story.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I have no idea how to feel about this. I'm glad it's over with but it feels like justice may have fallen a bit short here. Hopefully MLB did their due diligence (from what I know, it appears they did) and came to the right conclusion.

[mazeville]

MLB could re-open the investigation if it gets new news on Sano, per Heyman:

 

https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/977286086199250944

 

For what it's worth, I'm bothered and saddened by the result of this, happy as I am as a fan that Sano will be in the lineup. I just hope that there are people throughout the Twins organization who are stressing to this young man the importance of treating people with respect. 

[Ted Schwerzler]

 

Not much difference between celebrating the fact that the Twins will have Sano and looking forward to the Twins having Sano.

Being excited about a player's availability is a far cry from celebrating someone being deemed not guilty of sexual abuse.

[diehardtwinsfan]

I'm not really sure MLB is the arbiter of the guilt/innocence in this situation. They had to investigate, and they should have. The lack of evidence is the reason he's not being suspended, not that he did or didn't do it. 

 

Like others, I hope he grows from this. I'm not quite sure where I fall, though I tend to lean towards the accuser in this case. 

 

That said, I think we can all be thankful that this isn't the NFL handling the investigation. 

[slash129]

 

Being excited about a player's availability is a far cry from celebrating someone being deemed not guilty of sexual abuse.

 

I'm just celebrating the fact that he will be in the lineup ... Way to try to put the worst possible spin on something

 

But since I'm now demonized and could care less, I'll take it a step further and add that I'm celebrating the fact that our society has yet to fully hand Twitter a gavel.

[less cowbell more neau]

 

Being excited about a player's availability is a far cry from celebrating someone being deemed not guilty of sexual abuse.

He wasn't deemed not guilty, they said there was an "absence of contemporaneous substantiation." It's in Lawyerese, but there's a difference.

[gunnarthor]

I honestly didn't think he'd get suspended for a number of reasons. But I'm glad it's over and hopefully everyone can move forward and hope he leads the league in home runs.

[jkcarew]

We don't know what did and didn't happen.  Anyone can accuse anyone.  Some accusations can be substantiated, some can't.  Confused by posters that had an expectation regarding an outcome without a clue of what actually happened.

 

The only thing worth saying, IMO is....."now, we move on".

[Kelly Vance]

Memo to Sano:

 

Learn from it kid. Never give them a chance to put the arm on you. That means behave yourself, especially with ladies. And, remember, your actions impact others, not the least of which being millions of fans and your organization (the one that made you rich) and team mates.

[Sssuperdave]

This, and so many other situations like it, leave me perplexed and downcast. Whenever allegations of the sort Sano faced come out, there are a wide range of reactions. One of the common ones is "don't rush to judgment... wait until all the facts come out." The problem is, in most cases the facts never really come out. In this case, people that suspect he was falsely accused will say "See! He was cleared!", where people that believe the accuser will say "This only shows there wasn't enough evidence to prove wrongdoing," and no one's mind will be changed.

 

This is the case for me. I believed the accuser from the beginning and still do, but of course I don't actually have any clue what really happened, and I don't know any more than I did before this news came out. Perhaps that's okay though, maybe this all is just none of my business. 

[dave_dw]

 

We don't know what did and didn't happen.  Anyone can accuse anyone.  Some accusations can be substantiated, some can't.  Confused by posters that had an expectation regarding an outcome without a clue of what actually happened.

 

The only thing worth saying, IMO is....."now, we move on".

 

I would add "...with an eyebrow raised."

As you said, we don't know what did or didn't happen, but that works both ways. Sano might be the victim here, but he might be a total creep & an assailant, we don't know and we may never know. I will look at him a little differently from now on. Maybe that's unfair if he did nothing wrong, but it's certainly not fair enough if he did what he was accused of.

[Thrylos]

I just hope that both the interested parties and the rest of the world put this thing behind them, and move their attention onto the upcoming 2018 season, and we hear nothing else about it.

[jimbo92107]

MLB: Insufficient evidence. On your way, young man.

 

Sano: Yay, I'm completely innocent!

 

MLB: Yeah, sure. Just don't do it again.

[bird]

 

MLB could re-open the investigation if it gets new news on Sano, per Heyman:

 

https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/977286086199250944

 

For what it's worth, I'm bothered and saddened by the result of this, happy as I am as a fan that Sano will be in the lineup. I just hope that there are people throughout the Twins organization who are stressing to this young man the importance of treating people with respect. 

 

Yeah, I have no real confidence that Sano has taken any lesson to heart as it relates to the appropriate respect and treatment of females. In fact, I have my doubts.

 

Frankly, I'm more interested in evidence that the organization took a serious look at its own culture and were honest as they talked internally about their own culpability. Let's not forget that, in Chattanooga, we heard about supervisors among the ushers taking pains to protect their own female employees from disturbing and harassing catcalls from a ballplayer, not once but as a matter of necessary habit. I'm hoping the Twins organization has had energetic dialogues about this and other things, internally and with their affiliates. The organization itself was guilty of insensitivity at the very least. I'd feel a lot better about the whole thing if some part of their communication gave off a heartfelt vibe instead of sounding like a blurb from corporate counsel.

[jkcarew]

 

I would add "...with an eyebrow raised."

As you said, we don't know what did or didn't happen, but that works both ways. Sano might be the victim here, but he might be a total creep & an assailant, we don't know and we may never know. I will look at him a little differently from now on. Maybe that's unfair if he did nothing wrong, but it's certainly not fair enough if he did what he was accused of.

It works both ways...but the opposite of how you describe...at least, ideally....

 

No eyebrows should be raised, neither in the direction of Sano nor in the direction of the accuser.  We don't know what happened...people whose job it is to find out, and who had access to whatever information existed, couldn't determine with any certainty what happened.  That's the point.  Moving on...

[VATwinsFan]

Color me extremely surprised. Let's hope Molitor, Mauer etc will have have some good, long talks with Sano.

 

And let's also hope Gloria Allred doesn't make an appearance.

[dave_dw]

 

It works both ways...but the opposite of how you describe...at least, ideally....

 

No eyebrows should be raised, neither in the direction of Sano nor in the direction of the accuser.  We don't know what happened...people whose job it is to find out, and who had access to whatever information existed, couldn't determine with any certainty what happened.  That's the point.  Moving on...

 

You do you, but "moving on" is taking a position that nothing happened

[stockdogg]

Some of these comments crack me up. "Defaming either side isn't productive " while simultaneously saying that Sano doesnt seem to have learned his lesson. Huh? I know she used to eork for this site but jeez loueez, bias much? I personally found several flags in her statement. Ahe mentioned "now that Twins Daily has lost theit credentials, there is nothing left to lose"...that seems like an odd way to tell the "truth"...Then mentioning getting hit on every night by the first base coach. IMO, her statement on social media didn't do her any favors.

Like has been mentioned, it doesn't appear too many people really know what happened but there are a lot of you that want justice for her and crucify Sano anyway.

[h2oface]

Be it that the accuser stated that she only wanted to talk about it for her own mental health, and not create problems for Sano, it seems she should be happy with the outcome, and she has accomplished her goal. I hope Sano has learned, too. As a reader, I had certainly felt that the TD staffers had already judged him and convicted him. Hopefully, we all learn from this, respect the process, and move on and play some baseball.