Minnesota Twins: Miguel Sano the Cleanup Hitter of Today
By Carl Vagle
Miguel Sano has been tearing the cover off of the ball for the Minnesota Twins. He is proving that his spot in the lineup is cleanup.
If last week proved anything, it was that Miguel Sano is ready to be the Twins cleanup hitter. Sano’s splits before April 24th were .241/.413/.532 he has raised them to .316/.443/.684 in the matter of five games.
Sano batted .524/.545/1.000 in the last week with three home runs, four runs, and eleven RBIs. He led the Twins offense accounting for fifteen of 27 runs while also being named AL Player of the Week. His offense helped lead the Twins to a 4-1 week.
Miguel isn’t just tearing the cover off of the ball recently either. Aaron Gleeman did some digging and found out the following stats about Sano through his first 219 games.
Miguel Sano's ranks in Twins history through 219 career games:
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 1, 2017
Homers: 1st
RBI: 1st
Walks: 1st
OPS: 2nd
XBH: 2nd
SLG: 3rd
WPA: 4th
Runs: 5th
More from Minnesota Twins News
- Minnesota Twins: Grading the Twins’ Joey Gallo signing
- Minnesota Twins: Grading the Christian Vazquez Signing
- Minnesota Twins: Twins jump into Top 5 in first MLB Draft Lottery
- Minnesota Twins: Byron Buxton wins 2022 Bob Feller Act of Valor Award
- Minnesota Twins: A Twins Homage to the Turkey of the Year Award
The Twins cleanup hitters during this past week (4/24 to 4/30) batted .200/.273/.300 with two RBIs and one run. The cleanup hitters consisted of Joe Mauer and Robbie Grossman. Grossman was one for seven with a walk during his two games while Mauer was three for thirteen.
Joe Mauer batted .235/.278/.353 with one run and two RBIs over the past week batting either second or cleanup. He is hindering the run support the Twins could be giving their starting pitchers. His two RBIs also came because Sano was a foot short from hitting a grand slam.
It’s time to truly take advantage of Sano’s bat.
With Brian Dozier leading off and Max Kepler batting second the Twins best option is to drop Kepler to third. Kepler provides some pop and has a very smooth swing while Robbie Grossman could use his ability to get on base (.413 OBP in 2017) in the two spot and Sano could begin cleaning the bases.
Next: Twins: Sano Named AL Player of the Week
Miguel Sano just finished up April and is currently 1st in RBIs (25), tied for 3rd in home runs (7), 2nd in walks (18) and tied for 2nd in OBP (.443). With Sano developing his bat the Twins should put him in a spot to truly take advantage of its production.