'My wife and I will go on' Miguel Sano talks about death of infant daughter

The news was first reported by the New York Times. In late 2014, Sano and his wife, Daniela, had their first child, a daughter named Angelica. But Angelica lived for only one week, dying because of a heart defect.

Sano, then at Class AA Chattanooga, struggled to play. Sano said Sunday that it is still hard to talk about.

"It's a long time," he said. "but it's still hard."

Sano got off to a terrible start at Chattanooga but surged after the All-Star break to earn a call-up to the majors. Sano took advantage of the opportunity and hit .269 with 18 home runs and 52 RBI, finishing third in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

The Twins were aware of the situation and supported Sano as much as they could, General Manager Terry Ryan said.

"That's a tough thing for a 21-, 22-year-old young man to go through," Ryan said. "It would be tough for anybody. There was a grieving process there. I'm not sure he will ever get over that. I'm not sure any parent ever would."

The death of his daughter was a crushing blow in a year in which Sano never played a game because of Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery. " I got hurt, I had surgery, and I lose the baby — it was a bad year for me," he said. "Really bad. But I'm here now. I'm OK. My wife and I will go on."

Twins righthander Kyle Gibson on Sunday threw a few curveballs during his two shutout innings against Tampa Bay. He even threw two curves on successive pitches — something he never has done in a regular-season game.

Then again, Gibson hasn't thrown many curveballs in his career. Last season, only 3.2 percent of his pitches were curveballs.

He feels he needs the curveball more now, because his changeup and slider are around 83-84 miles per hour. His curve is 3 mph slower and could be effective if he becomes comfortable with it.

"I've been working on getting that release point down and hopefully making that a viable pitch for me this year," he said. "I would like it to be something I can double up and as long as I can have command of it, it should be a fun pitch to mix in."

Torii Hunter on Sunday flew home to Texas following the end of his stint as a special instructor. He rarely had any down time, as he was in the batting cage with Byron Buxton, in the field with Sano and even gave advice to Jose Berrios on how not to tip pitches.

The Twins head to Sarasota on Monday to play the Orioles. Phil Hughes, making his second outing of the spring, will be on a limit of three innings or 45 pitches, whichever comes first. Trevor May will follow him, with Fernando Abad, Brandon Kintzler and Alex Meyer on the trip as well.