StaTuesday: Twins' Miguel Sano mashing again after rocky start
Miguel Sano's much-hyped return following a lost 2018 season was nearly derailed before it began.
An offseason foot injury delayed the 26-year-old's debut until May 16, but his swing was cause for concern.
His struggles came to a head in mid-June.
Sano went 0-for-7 with five strikeouts back on June 18, then 0-for-7 with three more on June 27, as the Twins tinkered with his mechanics.
And while there were signs of improvement, the results were worrying: Sano went 3-for-38 at the plate over that span, striking out 21 times.
Remarkably, he and the Twins' coaching staff figured it out on the fly: Sano is hitting .271/.376/.596 with a .973 OPS and 14 home runs in 47 games since July 1.
Those look an awful lot like the numbers that landed Sano his first All-Star nod back in 2017: .276/.368/.538 with a .906 OPS and 21 home runs in 82 games during the first half.
MLB, home runs since July 1
| Player | Team | AB | HR | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| Mike Trout | LAA | 164 | 20 | 0.286 | 0.410 | 0.719 |
| Eugenio Suarez | CIN | 174 | 19 | 0.270 | 0.351 | 0.626 |
| Yuli Gurriel | HOU | 177 | 18 | 0.378 | 0.424 | 0.768 |
| Nelson Cruz | MIN | 134 | 17 | 0.320 | 0.397 | 0.768 |
| Josh Donaldson | ATL | 172 | 17 | 0.279 | 0.406 | 0.627 |
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | ATL | 199 | 16 | 0.281 | 0.370 | 0.547 |
| Cody Bellinger | LAD | 168 | 15 | 0.244 | 0.343 | 0.565 |
| Jose Ramirez | CLE | 178 | 15 | 0.320 | 0.354 | 0.691 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | STL | 178 | 15 | 0.286 | 0.338 | 0.589 |
| Juan Soto | WAS | 175 | 15 | 0.280 | 0.401 | 0.582 |
| Rafael Devers | BOS | 205 | 15 | 0.331 | 0.375 | 0.673 |
| Justin Turner | LAD | 163 | 15 | 0.282 | 0.357 | 0.613 |
| Gleyber Torres | NYY | 172 | 14 | 0.273 | 0.327 | 0.558 |
| Jorge Soler | KCR | 162 | 14 | 0.290 | 0.422 | 0.598 |
| Max Kepler | MIN | 186 | 14 | 0.231 | 0.319 | 0.510 |
| Jose Altuve | HOU | 193 | 14 | 0.352 | 0.407 | 0.652 |
| Miguel Sano | MIN | 166 | 14 | 0.271 | 0.376 | 0.596 |
Put another way, Sano would be on pace for 48 home runs over the course of a full season.
Sano is tied for 13th in the majors with 14 homers since July 1, and tied for second on the Twins over that span, with Minnesota' second-best slugging percentage.
Only Nelson Cruz has been better.
Sano helped the Twins to a pair of wins over the Detroit Tigers during their most-recent series, hitting three home runs and a double in three games to push his slash line to .247/.344/.579 on the season with a .923 OPS and 26 home runs.
Despite the struggles and the late start, Sano is closing in on his first 30-homer season as a pro.
If he keeps it up down the stretch, that bounce-back season could still materialize.
Statistics courtesy of Sportradar
