The Twins' original timetable may have envisioned Miguel Sano as the team's starting third baseman next April, but Tommy John surgery and a lost 2014 season changed all that. Sano won't be in Minneapolis next April, General Manager Terry Ryan told season-ticket holders on Wednesday, and when he does arrive, it's possible he won't be a third baseman, either.

"Sano could go to the outfield if he had to," Ryan said on the team's annual conference-call Q&A for its best customers. Trevor Plouffe, considered by some observers a place-holder for the organization's brightest power-hitting prospect, is coming off his best season as the Twins' third baseman, and Ryan suggested that he might not want to make a change.

"[Sano] can run enough. He certainly can throw. His ticket up here is going to be that bat he possesses — he's got the type of power that everybody's looking for," Ryan said. "So if we had a problem at third and you had too much talent over there, which is a good problem to have, you certainly could consider the young kid going to the outfield and learning his craft out there. A lot of them do — there are a lot of young players who come up and change positions in a hurry if they're blocked [by] an established veteran."

That's a decision for later, however, because Ryan also made it clear that Sano, who underwent elbow surgery last February but now "looks pretty healthy to me," will require more time in the minor leagues. "He's not going to be ready to make this team out of spring training. He's going to have to re-establish himself," Ryan said of the 21-year-old Dominican. "We'll give him a good look in spring training, but to put that out there, that he's got a chance to make this club out of spring, I think that would be the wrong approach. He's barely got any at-bats at Double-A."

Ryan and Twins President Dave St. Peter answered roughly two dozen questions from fans during the session, ranging from the search for a manager (There are "a lot of people who I need to talk to before we name a guy," Ryan said) to the slow pace of play ("It has the potential to have a negative impact on the future of our game," St. Peter said) to Joe Mauer's indifferent body language during a subpar season.

"He's got a stoic look. He's got a calm presence," Ryan said of the team's first baseman, who batted a career-low .277 this season. "When the guy doesn't succeed and have the breakout years that you're expecting, it looks like he's disinterested. When he had the big years, it's calm. So I wouldn't put too much stock in [his demeanor], one way or the other."

One caller, after complimenting the team for firing manager Ron Gardenhire, even asked St. Peter why he's sure Ryan should keep his job in the wake of four straight 90-loss seasons.

"I know this — if Terry Ryan was on the open market, there would be no shortage of teams that would be very interested in [hiring] him," St. Peter replied. "It's a results-oriented business, and until we get this major league club back to where ultimately we want it and you deserve it, those are fair questions. But I'm optimistic we have the right person in charge, the right person to have that balance between building an organization to have success, but also doing it in a way where you can sustain that success over the long haul."

Ryan promised to try to attract free agents again this winter, in hopes of repeating his free-agent success with Phil Hughes and Kurt Suzuki last winter, though he declined to say how much the team is willing to spend on more pitching. And he repeated his optimism about the team's coming lode of talent — though he cautioned once more that young players take time to develop.

"We're not broke here, we're bent. We've got some issues, and we need to make better decisions. But I feel a heck of a lot better about this club and moving forward than I did a year ago," Ryan said. "I don't think we're all that far away [from contention]. I don't want to punt on 2015, but it's still going to be a struggle."