Defensive Woes Follow Danny Santana To the Dominican

The Monte Plata product has had a particularly lousy week with the glove. Tuesday evening, Santana committed his fifth error in as many contests. All five of those errors have come at second base, a position he's only seen limited time at in the minors, but the poor glove work serves as further evidence that Santana is ill- equipped as an infielder.

Obviously, you can't read much into any winter league stats, but taking Santana's 2015 regular season showing into account, I think it would be best if the Twins completely gave up on him ever becoming an everyday major league shortstop.

I had assumed the club made that determination when Santana was sent down to Rochester in late July, handing the everyday job back to the steady Eduardo Escobar. But when game 162 came around and Paul Molitor was filling out a lineup card of mostly reserves, he penciled Santana in at short, moving Escobar over to second base.

That indicated to me that the club is neither sold of\n Escobar as its shortstop nor convinced that Santana is doomed at the position. With how poorly Santana hit in 2015, it almost went unnoticed that he also managed to commit the ninth-most errors of any shortstop despite making only 65 starts at the position.

So, what's ahead for Santana in 2016? Aaron Hicks is out of the picture and it couldn't hurt to get Byron Buxton some more playing time at Triple-A, so I believe Danny Santana's last shot as an everyday player with the Twins (barring injury of course) is as the Opening Day center fielder next season.

With a crowded outfield and prospects on the verge, his chance may not last long, but I would like to see Santana get one more real shot as an everyday player, assuming he shows us something between now and Opening Day. It's almost difficult to remember now, but Santana was every bit as electrifying a rookie in 2014 as Eddie Rosario was this past season. That same talent is still there.

Things haven't been as disastrous at the dish for Santana in the Dominican, but it also does not appear as though he's is improving on his greatest weakness, either. Including Tuesday night's action, the notoriously aggressive Santana had drawn just one walk in 81 at-bats.

Plate discipline often gets better as a player ages, and to find an example of a player turning things around quickly in that department you have to look no further than Eduardo Escobar. After drawing just eight walks over 216 plate appearances in the first half, Escobar managed to tally 20 walks over 230 plate appearances after the break. Obviously that's a small sample, but if Santana could take a similar step forward it would make him much more difficult for opposing pitchers to attack.

While it's disappointing to see Santana fail to make strides so far this winter, I'm sure Molitor will give him every opportunity to impress during spring training. But if he can't even make strides in the Dominican League or even the Grapefruit League, his fate could be sealed as a bench player for the rest of his career.