ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – Miguel Sano won't be taking any bus rides across the Eastern seaboard with the Rochester Red Wings, at least for now. After igniting a weekend of speculation about their cleanup hitter's pending demotion, the Twins decided that Byron Buxton's difficulties at the plate require more urgent attention than their issues with Sano's work ethic.
Besides, interim General Manager Rob Antony said, Sano seems to be taking steps to correct the behavior that got him nominated for a minor league stint in the first place.
And any lingering doubt may have been erased Sunday afternoon when Sano bashed two home runs in the Twins' 6-3 victory over Tampa Bay.
"We believe he understands that nothing is guaranteed to him," Antony said. "He's a young player who has had some issues, and he's working hard to address the concerns that we've had, and hopefully that continues."
It will continue in the major leagues for now. Trevor Plouffe homered and doubled Saturday in the last of his five rehab games with Rochester, and he returned to the Twin Cities on Sunday. He will be activated before Monday's game with Houston, and Buxton, 6-for-46 (.130) since the All-Star break, will return to the Class AAA team.
Sano was one of a handful of candidates whom Antony and manager Paul Molitor considered demoting to make room for Plouffe, especially since a recent hitting slump and rash of errors was sometimes paired with a perception that the 23-year-old slugger could be indifferent to working on his craft or nonchalant about his mistakes. Molitor even benched Sano three times in a six-day span in late July, and while the manager didn't explicitly cite that as a reason, he also declined to rule out a demotion for Sano when asked during the week.
Molitor said he regretted that Sano had become "a hot-button topic," however. "He got singled out, maybe unfairly, in my mind. But he's had a good week," Molitor said of the slugger. "His at-bats have been getting better. Starting in Cleveland, he started taking a few more walks, and now he's squaring balls up. He's gained a lot of confidence."
Just in time, perhaps. Now that Plouffe has fully recovered from a fractured rib, Molitor and Antony said they agreed that Sano is making progress. "Sometimes the lessons are a little harder and sometimes it's not going to be perfect for anybody," Molitor said. "He's committed, I think, to us and the staff and his teammates that he's willing to do what he needs to do to keep himself here and keep himself playing at a high level."
