Minnesota Twins: Comparing Miguel Sano to his 2016 Self
By Jordan Ison
Miguel Sano has been the leader of the Minnesota Twins’ offense in 2017. That wasn’t the case in 2016. Let’s look at his improvements over the past year.
For the Minnesota Twins, last year was the year of Brian Dozier. This year is looking more and more like the year of Miguel Sano. If it wasn’t for Mike Trout, Sano would’ve walked away with the AL Player of the Month for April.
The fact is, though, Sano has not always been the stud we see taking the hot corner today. Last year, while he had a decent year, he was far from the offensive leader. He knew he had plenty of improvements to make, and he has made them.
Obviously, and Sano would be the first one to say this, there are plenty of improvements that he could still make. Even so, the Minnesota Twins have every reason to be very excited about their third baseman. Let’s take a look at his improvements from last year to this year.
2016
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Miguel Sano’s slash line was .236/.319/.462.
He had 25 home-runs, 22 doubles, one triple and 66 RBI’s.
Also note that he had 178 strikeouts to only 54 walks.
As I said earlier, it’s clear that Sano had a solid 2016 campaign, but it’s nothing compared to how he’s started the 2017 season.
2017 – through 30 games
Miguel Sano’s slash line is .300/.431/.640
He has 8 home-runs, 6 doubles, 2 triples and 28 RBI’s.
He has 42 strikeouts to 23 walks.
Those stats are easy to look at and say, “dang.” They are impressive. Of course, that’s only from a 30 game sample size. From what he’s shown, though, he has no plans of slowing down. So let’s adjust those stats as if he had already played 162 games in 2017.
2017 Adjusted Statistics
Since it’s hard to predict his slash line, we’ll assume it stays the same – .300/.431/.640
He will have 43 home-runs, 32 doubles, 11 triples and 151 RBI’s.
He will have 227 strikouts to 124 walks.
These stats would be worth a couple expletives, and would definitely help the Minnesota Twins have a successful 2017 campaign. From 2016, he would improve (by a large margin) in literally every single category except for strikeouts. With a power hitter, though, strikeouts come with the territory.
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Man, would it be nice to see those kind of numbers on Miguel Sano’s stat-sheet at the end of 2017. Those are MVP type numbers. Let’s just say, if he stays as hot as he’s been through 30 games all season long, the Twins have an extremely high chance of making a playoff push.