Next Monday was supposed to be the first meaningful offseason contact between Miguel Sano and the Twins, a check-in at their academy on Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, to see the progress in his recovery from soreness near his left knee.
Instead, club officials had to reach out to him Sunday after he hit a police officer with his truck during an early Sunday morning checkpoint, resulting in a broken left leg for the officer.
Sano was not charged, and has offered to help pay the medical bills. The Twins are satisfied and now Sano can get on with an offseason in which the Twins have declared him a priority in their efforts to make him a dangerous hitter again.
"Miguel has taken steps to help throughout this process," said Derek Falvey, the Twins chief baseball officer.
"He has certainly complied with anything that has been asked of the police and otherwise.
"At this stage, this is ultimately viewed as an accident and something we want to make sure that we are doing what we can to help both Miguel and the officer down there to make sure this has a resolution."
The Twins want to move forward into an offseason during which Sano is expected to split time between his homes in the Dominican Republic and Fort Myers, Fla., while working on his conditioning.
Sano wants to lose more weight. During an interview in September, Sano revealed that he planned to train with Yon Soriano, a Dominican track star who participated in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, and remain at third base.