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Front Page: PASSAN: Twins, Sano in Agreement on 3-Year Contract Extension

Tom Froemming
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Tom Froemming All-Star

Tom Froemming

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Jeff Passan of ESPN has reported this evening that the Minnesota Twins and Miguel Sano are in agreement on a three-year contract extension that includes a club option for 2023. As things stood, Sano was set to reach free agency after the end of the 2021 season.Here's the full Tweet from Passan, who broke the news:

 

 

UPDATE: Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic provides the specifics:

 

 

I believe Rosenthal meant to say the fourth year is a $14 million club option with a $3 million buyout. At least that's how the math works out to be $30 million guaranteed.

 

This is the third major extension for the Twins in the past calendar year. Last February, Max Kepler signed a deal that guaranteed him $35 million over five years with an option for a sixth and Jorge Polanco inked a deal that secured him $25.75 million over five years with two additional option years.

 

The news of arbitration signings had been slow to come through today, and when all was said and done the Twins were left without agreements with two players: Sano and Jose Berrios. One of those boxes has been checked.

 

Sano entered last season on the Injured List thanks to a freak injury, but ended the year posting carrer-high numbers across the board. In just 105 games, Sano hit 34 homes, drove in 79 runs and scored 76, posting a .247/.346/.576 slash line (.923 OPS).

 

This move gives the Twins the opportunity to secures Sano's services through his age-31 season. Yes, even though it feels like he's been around forever, Sano doesn't turn 27-years-old until this May.

 

This would have been pretty difficult to believe a year ago.

 

Sano had a titanium rod inserted into his left shin to support the bone during the 2017 offseason, then had a dreadful 2018. He hit .199/.281/.398 (.679 OPS) and struck out 115 times in 299 plate appearances (38.5 K%).

 

In addition to the impressive 2019 traditional stats listed above, Sano also led the league in hard hit rate (57.2%) and ranked second in average exit velocity (94.4 mph). But even his 2019 season wasn't without some doubts sprinkled in.

 

Sano got off to a hot start once he returned to the team in mid-May, but he went through a 30-game stretch from early June through mid-July where he struck out in 49 of his 118 plate appearances (41.5%). While there's always going to be a lot of swing and miss in the Dominican slugger's game, Sano scaled that rate back to 34.1% from there forward, a stretch of 60 games, and had an impressive .968 OPS over that span.

 

It's been a journey. Sano's .498 slugging percentage currently ranks fourth in franchise history behind only Harmon Killebrew (.514), Goose Goslin and Roy Sievers, the last two of which played only for the Washington Senators. Sano has also already hit the 18th-most home runs in franchise history at 118.

 

Sano was projected to make $5.9 million this upcoming season, his second time through the arbitration process. Specific details have yet to be reported, but while we wait, here's a video of every bomba Sano hit last season.

 

 

Also, here's a prediction on how the deal may be structured from Seth:

 

 

UPDATE: This Seth guy seems to know what he's talking about! ;)

 

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prouster
prouster

Great news. I’m a fan of this front office’s tendency to tack on team options at the ends of contracts.

Brock Beauchamp
Brock Beauchamp

If they manage to drop $20m+ on extensions to existing players this offseason, that takes some sting out of their big swings and misses at basically every free agent worth mentioning.   Good signing,

Brock Beauchamp
Brock Beauchamp

Which could be said about literally every person to ever throw a baseball from a mound.

Hosken Bombo Disco All-Star

Hosken Bombo Disco

Community Moderator
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Guess we don't have to worry about him being traded. I'll be very interested to see the details of this deal. I'll guess...

 

6/9/12 and option for 14. So a $27M over 3 years with a $14M option.

 

When Polanco was extended (for peanuts, in my opinion), others then pointed out that it would make Polanco easier to trade. So, maybe, maybe not.
Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

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Great news. I can see Berrios being harder to lock down. He'll be looking at Wheeler money - at the very least - when he's a free agent.

Yeah, I doubt they get more than one FA year of Berrios but I’d take that, especially if he allows the team to front load the extension and only pay $12-15m in that final year.
Danchat Minnesota Twins

Danchat

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Hmmmm... this contract seems quite team-friendly. It's hard to say what Sano would have made hitting free agency in 2022, but I imagine he'd get $20M+ a year on a big deal, so I really like this move for the Twins. The Kepler and Polanco extensions were home runs, so let's see if Sano can make this deal look cheap with another strong season.

Darius First Round Pick

Darius

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This takes a little of the edge off of this offseason for me. Not totally, but it at least gives me some indication of a pulse.

 

Great deal for both sides. We may have just gotten a top 20 offensive player in the game for $10M per through 2023. Sano gets financial security for his entire family for the rest of his life (and more if he’s smart).

 

Of course, all of these great cheap deals (Sano, Kepler, Polanco) mean nothing if you don’t use the savings somewhere else.

bighat Cedar Rapids Kernels

bighat

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Yeah, I doubt they get more than one FA year of Berrios but I’d take that, especially if he allows the team to front load the extension and only pay $12-15m in that final year.

Agreed, I'd take a year extension at this point for sure.

shimrod Draft Eligible

shimrod

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I've been highly critical of this off-season. The Twins had plenty of cash available and failed to improve the team. 

 

If you're striking out in FA, however, this is a good plan B. The money's available, spend it. We may not be any better in 2020 but 2021 , 2022, and 2023 are looking up. 

bobs Draft Eligible

bobs

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Guess we don't have to worry about him being traded. I'll be very interested to see the details of this deal. I'll guess...

 

6/9/12 and option for 14. So a $27M over 3 years with a $14M option. 

Does this make him MORE valuable in a trade?  Especially at what appears to be team-friendly dollar figures

bobs Draft Eligible

bobs

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I like the move.  Seems like another example of the FO getting core guys under affordable contracts...like Kepler and Polanco last year.  I'd love to see Berrios be next.

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