With no Twins baseball to help pass the time this winter, Terry Ryan provided the team's fans with a juicy mystery instead Tuesday: What does he have in mind for Miguel Sano?
In an hourlong season-wrapup media session at Target Field, the Twins general manager dropped a series of seemingly mutually-exclusive clues about his plans for the team's lineup in 2016, and specifically what Sano might do when he doesn't have a bat in his hand. The rookie slugger, who turbocharged Minnesota's offense with 18 home runs and a team-high .915 OPS as the team's designated hitter, was a third baseman in the minors — "He's capable of handling the position," Ryan judged — and has the size of a first baseman.
But he's also only 22, so "Sano cannot get into the mind-set that he's going to be a DH," Ryan insisted. "We have aspirations for him to be a good position player."
In practically the same breath, however, Ryan said Trevor Plouffe won't be moved off third base, and Joe Mauer is the team's first baseman.
"A lot of things could change over the course of the winter, but it's fair to say Plouffe and Mauer should be our third and first basemen coming into camp — as we sit here today," he said.
Those last five words could be the most important, since Ryan and his staff have six months to sort out this three's-a-crowd problem. Does he contemplate a trade to open a position for Sano? Might the rookie inherit a job in the outfield, though that's another spot where there are more potential candidates than places to put them? Could some time-sharing arrangement work, giving Sano more frequent chances to play in the field when he's not serving as DH?
Ryan laid out all the pieces but refused to solve the puzzle. Even more intriguing: He doesn't intend for this to be wait-till-next-April cliffhanger.
"I would like to [determine his future] this winter, so he can prepare for it," Ryan said. "[Sano] is athletic enough to make [a] transition, whatever we do."