The Minnesota Twins’ leading slugger Miguel Sano is headed to the DL. With a hot lineup, they may be able to sustain their winning ways in his absence.
The Minnesota Twins finished off a series sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 12-5 victory Sunday afternoon only to be met with bad news after the game.
Sano to DL with stress reaction in left shin
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) August 20, 2017
The stress reaction in Sano’s shin seemed to first flare up during Friday’s opener against the Diamondbacks. Resulting in him DH-ing on Saturday and missing the game Sunday. There will be no official announcement of any moves for the 26th man for Monday’s doubleheader or to fill Sano’s roster spot until tomorrow. All signs are pointing to Kennys Vargas getting another shot with the Twins.
Kennys Vargas has been removed after 2 at-bats for @RocRedWings today. Appears headed back to #mntwins, likely for Sano (DL), I'm told.
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) August 20, 2017
While fans may be getting tired of seeing Vargas try and prove his worth in the big leagues, there just are not very many other short term options. At least not without some major shake up of the 40-man roster. An argument could be made for Daniel Palka, but since Palka is another left-handed bat he may simply not hit from the correct side of the plate for the current Twins’ lineup.
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It would seem that Eduardo Escobar would be in line to take Sano’s spot at third base defensively. There is a possibility that Ehire Adrianza may get some days there as well, or even come in as a defensive replacement later in games.
If there is any silver lining to your franchise slugger hitting the DL, it is that the Twins’ lineup is firing on all cylinders currently. Eddie Rosario‘s average is up over .300 and he hit his 17th home run of the season Sunday afternoon. Byron Buxton has also been on a tear hitting .356 since July 1 with a .977 OPS. Sano’s absence could also open up some at-bats for Mitch Garver to prove himself against major league pitching.
The Twins are also in a stretch of their schedule where they will play teams that are below them in the standings for several weeks. It isn’t until potentially September 18 when they take on the New York Yankees that they will have to look up in the standings to find their opponent. There will still be a couple important series against both the Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals in that stretch which will likely continue to have Wild Card implications.
As is always the case when a star player goes down to injury, the Twins will not be able to fully replace Miguel Sano with one call-up. They thankfully should be able to get contributions from the whole line up that should keep the team winning in his absence.
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There currently is no timetable for Sano’s return so we will have to hope he will continue to progress and only miss the minimum 10 days. Anything more and the Twins could really begin to miss having his dangerous bat in the middle of the lineup.