On Wednesday, long before current Twins closer Alex Colome tried to give away a win to Boston — only to have former Twins closer Hansel Robles give it right back — Miguel Sano hit a ball so high and so far that it still might not have landed.
The official data says it went 495 feet, the longest home run in all of Major League Baseball.
And that, of course, is the good side of Sano. He hits the ball a long way. And he's even been doing it with reasonable frequency for much of this season: 20 homers from May 15 to now — roughly half a season — helping to make up for a terrible start that torpedoed his overall numbers and helped sink the Twins as well.
But of course there's this: Far more frequently Sano swings and misses. Our Phil Miller had an amazing statistic earlier this week, noting that Sano had just passed Kirby Puckett for fourth place on the Twins' all-time strikeout list.
The, uh, caveat: Sano did it in about 5,000 fewer at bats.
That is the Sano conundrum in a tidy package, something I talked about on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast.
If you don't see the podcast player, tap here to listen.
Sano will do just enough spectacular things to entice you and make you believe he could more regularly do those things. But more often than not — at least for significant chunks of 2018, 2020 and 2021 — the tantalizing skill will prove to be just a tease and instead you'll be left with weeks (or months) of empty at bats.
