Will Twins' Sano/Buxton/Park plan pay off? Evidence still sketchy

FORT MYERS, FLA. – The Twins played the first of 31 exhibition games in Florida on March 2. On Tuesday, the big leaguers had the lone day off during spring training, after having played 14 exhibitions.

Throw in the fact there were a handful of full-squad workout days before the first exhibition, and Tuesday's day off could be called the halfway point of the Twins' stay in Florida.

They arrived here in late February with three major questions involving position players:

Would the move of Miguel Sano to right field work? Would Byron Buxton show enough progress at the plate to open the season in center field? Would Byung Ho Park, the Korean import, look competitive against the harder throwers in North American baseball?

There were only two possible answers on Park that would come out of spring training: "Maybe" or "What were they thinking?"

The pitchers will be throwing harder from start to finish when the season opens, but for now, Park gets the "maybe" with his nine hits, three home runs and seven RBI in 25 at-bats.

As for the other two questions, Sano in right and Buxton at the plate, it would be great to be able to offer an observation halfway through spring training. Can't be done for this reason:

There is a complication the Twins and many other big-league teams bring upon themselves during spring training: minor league free agents.

Players who have spent six years in professional baseball (independent doesn't count) and are not on a 40-player major league roster are free agents.

If there's any market for these players, a team has to offer an invitation to spring training as part of the incentive to sign. The Twins started with 64 players in this camp, and 17 were minor league free agents.

There were 33 position players, and 11 were minor league free agents.

I was talking with former Twins manager Tom Kelly as the exhibition games started. He thought Molitor was going to have to hurt some feelings among the nonroster invitees because of a need to see a great deal of Sano, Buxton and Park.

Would the months of offseason work here at the Twins complex enable Arcia to regain his standing as a big-league power hitter, or would he continue to flail to the point the Twins would let him go at age 24?

Again, good question. It would be nice to have an opinion, but the evidence is too sparse halfway through the spring for that.

Arcia has 18 at-bats (and three walks) in nine games. Joe Benson has 16 at-bats (and three walks) in 10 games.

Joe Benson. If you have met him, you like him. Joe also re-signed with the organization last Nov. 25 knowing there was zero chance he would make a return to the Twins through his efforts in spring training.

Joe has to be happy for every day he sticks around big-league camp, with or without an at-bat.

Here's a better one: We know after watching him for 46 games last season that Buxton is going to run down the ball better than any center fielder in Twins history. That includes Torii Hunter in his prime, Kirby Puckett at his slimmest and, heck, even Lyman Bostock.

What nobody knows — including Molitor and his coaching staff — is can Buxton hit at an acceptable level in the big leagues? He batted .209 with the Twins last season.

I figured him for three at-bats, six days a week here in Florida.

Not quite. Buxton had played in eight games with 20 at-bats (and two walks) going into Wednesday night's game with Boston.

By contrast, Ryan Sweeney — out of the game after being released by the Cubs last April — had played in 10 games with 21 at-bats and four more plate appearances than Buxton.

"We sign minor league free agents for a reason,'' General Manager Terry Ryan said. "Some are here with a real chance to make our club. Others, we're looking at as players who will be in [Class AAA] Rochester and ready to be called up if necessary.

"Paul Molitor is a respectful guy. If we bring a player to camp, he's going to try to give him a chance."

Presumably, as the second half of the Grapefruit League starts, respect will get pushed aside in favor of dealing with big questions that so far only a cursory attempt has been made to answer.