Minnesota Twins send Miguel Sano to Single-A to rediscover his swing

The Minnesota Twins made the long awaited move to send Miguel Sano to the minors. A move down to Single-A caught everyone off guard.

The Minnesota Twins made the move basically the whole baseball world has been waiting for. They have sent Sano back to the minors. The surprise is that Sano didn’t just land back in Triple-A Rochester, but he is going to Single-A Fort Meyers. The move seems to be clearly just what Sano needs at this point in his career.

Sano heads to Florida with a 2018 slash line of .203/.270/.405 and a strikeout rate of 40.5%. He has simply looked lost at the plate. Something that Martin Schlegel highlighted here at Puckett’s Pond when he highlighted Sano’s inability to hit sliders and his indecisiveness at the plate.

Now it also needs to be understood that Sano isn’t being sent all the way to Single-A because he is so bad he can’t handle either Triple-A or Double-A. He just finished in a rehab stint destroying Triple-A pitching to the tune of .375/.474/.750 and a 1.224 OPS. It was only five games but he clearly can hit Triple-A.

This is instead an opportunity for Sano to completely retool his approach at the plate against a much inferior level of player. Whether that is a mechanics thing or a pitch recognition thing. This move by the Twins is similar to when a pitcher gets sent to Single-A to find his command. In Sano’s case he is going to find his swing.

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Along with being the most developed player on the field, Sano will also have at his disposal some of the Twins best developmental coaches. These are the coaches that are tasked all year long to helping advance some of the Twins best young minor league players. They will be able to help tear down Sano’s swing and build him back up.

If there is a positive to the whole situation it is that Sano at least seems prepared to go and work on his swing. He is ready to go and do what the Twins front office is asking him to do. Now the choice of words he used in the following quote have rubbed some the wrong way, but giving him the benefit of the doubt it could be a language issue.

As a fan this is certainly a hard move to see come to fruition. This was supposed to be the next great season from the slugger. This was supposed to be the season that started a string of All-Star game appearances. Then a string of postseason appearances by the Twins fueled by the 30 home run a season bat of Sano.

Instead we are asking ourselves if this could be the beginning of the end. We worry that one of the franchise cornerstone players for this era may be done before it really started. Now we are not there yet. There is still time for Sano to even come back this season even and hit again.

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As Twins fans we were all sold on hope of a great 2018. Sano’s demotion is just the latest in a series of events that has us beginning to give up on this season and looking ahead to 2019 already. Let’s hope something changes soon.