Three Reasons Twins Fans Should be Excited to Watch Miguel Sano

1. Sano was a top 30 player on offense in 2019.

Miguel Sano’s ranks on offense last season:

• wRC+: 21st (137)
  
• OPS: 19th (.923)
  
• SLG: 11th (.576)
  
• wOBA: 27th (.378)
  
• HR: 29th (34)
  
• ISO: 3rd (.329)
  

Keep in mind he only played 105 games and had 439 plate appearances and still ranked in the top 30 for home runs. Sano was an elite batter on the most prolific home run hitting team in baseball history. The plan set up for him to maintain his performance appeared to have been working perfectly like we were all hoping it would before the season. Hopefully he can get a full season under his belt in 2019 so we can see just how good he can become.

2. Sano will start the season after a healthy offseason.

If you remember back to last offseason, you will likely remember all the hype surrounding Sano about his offseason because of how closely the Twins were monitoring him. He was supposed to jump in on Opening Day and be the player he was for 60% of the season last year for the whole year. Instead he ended up suffering a heel injury that kept him out for the first couple months, diminishing the hype and expectations.

This is now year two of the Twins very closely monitoring the diet and training for Sano to maintain his weight and borderline elite performance from a year ago. He is on pace to start the season in the Opening Day lineup after the outstanding season he had in 2019 and an offseason where the Twins were able to do everything they wanted to keep Sano on that level.

3. He shouldn’t experience much regression.

Matthew Lenz of TwinsDaily just put out a piece explaining why five Twins players could see regression in home runs. While I agree that Sano will see a dip in his HR/FB%, I don’t think his overall offensive production should take a hit. I say this because he absolutely tattoed the baseball last season. Here are his MLB Statcast rankings:

• Avg Exit Velo: 2nd (94.4 MPH)
  
• Hard Hit%: 1st (57.2%)
  
• Barrels/batted ball events: 2nd (21.2%)
  

Basically he just smashed the baseball last season and that led to his best season in the majors. Now if he can focus on lifting the ball in the air more (41.9 FB% in 2019), while maintaining his hard contact then he should only get better.

Alright, those were the exciting things. He does have some glaring weaknesses including his third base defense (sign Donaldson @Twins) and potentially his strikeout rate. Right now, I think the strengths definitely outweigh the weaknesses and he should be one of the most fun Twins players to watch if he stays focused like he was last season.

What do you think? Has Miguel Sano proven enough to you, or do you need to see more of this? Maybe you just think he is bad at baseball. Let me know in the comments!

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