Minnesota Twins: Miguel Sano is Ready to be the New Face of the Franchise
By Jordan Ison
As the Minnesota Twins try to take the next step in their road to success, Miguel Sano is ready to step up as the new face of the franchise.
The Minnesota Twins have not been to the playoffs since 2010 and are obviously in rebuilding mode. The first step to becoming successful again is finding the leader of the team. Miguel Sano is set to take that role.
Behind his powerful bat and solid glove, Sano is starting to make his name known around the league. Normally hitting clean-up, he is starting to strike fear into opposing pitchers when he comes to the plate.
In 2016, Miguel Sano had a slash line of .236/.319/.497 with 25 home-runs and 66 RBI’s. Sano was far from great last year, but made strides at becoming a solid MLB player. He is trying to build on that effort in this new season.
So far in 2017, Sano has a slash line of .245/.393/.612 with 4 home-runs and 13 RBI’s. Along with his power, Miguel Sano has become much more patient at the plate as he has already earned 12 walks this season.
At 3rd base, Sano has also made big strides at becoming a solid fielder. He has committed two errors in 14 games thus far. While that is far from perfect, his athleticism and arm has shown solid improvement.
Since the Minnesota Twins are an American League team, they always have the option of putting Sano at the designated hitter position. They definitely don’t want to do that. But if he doesn’t fit their need at 3rd base, it gives the Twins the option to replace him at 3rd while leaving him in the lineup.
It may seem like the Minnesota Twins are a long way from being a great team, but that may not be the case. When looking at all great teams in the MLB, they all have one thing in common – a team leader. The Twins may have found theirs.
As the season progresses, we’ll see more and more if Miguel Sano is ready to be the franchise player for the Minnesota Twins. He needs to get his batting average up and keep up the power at the plate. If he can do that and continue to improve in the field, every sign points to the fact that Sano could be the Twins’ new team leader.