April 23: The Twins have confirmed that Sano is on the 10-day IL and that both Kirilloff and Gordon have been recalled from their alternate training site in St. Paul. Minnesota also selected the contract of infielder Tzu-Wei Lin to the big league roster and returned catcher Tomas Telis to the alternate site. Telis had been selected off the taxi squad as a replacement player for a Covid IL placement, so he can be sent back to the alternate site and removed from the 40-man roster without clearing waivers. Additionally, the Twins optioned infielder Travis Blankenhorn.
The 27-year-old Lin has seen big league time with the Red Sox in each of the past four seasons, appearing at three infield spots (second base, shortstop, third base) and batting .223/.298/.316 through 218 trips to the plate. Lin hit .300/.440/.600 in 25 spring plate appearances after signing a minor league deal with the Twins and will get his first chance at the MLB level with a club other than Boston.
April 22: The Twins will place first baseman Miguel Sano on the 10-day injured list Friday because of a strained right hamstring, Megan Ryan of the Star Tribune reports. The team will also recall outfielder Alex Kirilloff and infielder Nick Gordon, per Dan Hayes of The Athletic.
Sano suffered the injury on Tuesday, forcing him to miss the second game of the Twins’ doubleheader against the Athletics. The IL placement is the latest negative development in what has been a rough start to the season for Sano, who has batted .111/.310/.244 with two home runs and a career-low .133 ISO (down from a lifetime mark of .253) in 58 plate appearances. Sano has started the vast majority of the Twins’ games at first this year, but when he hasn’t played there, the team has used Willians Astudillo and Mitch Garver.
The 23-year-old Kirilloff, MLB.com’s 22nd-ranked prospect, appeared in two games and took three plate appearances earlier this season, but he may now get a more extensive look with outfielders Max Kepler and Kyle Garlick on the COVID-19 list. Since Minnesota took him 15th overall in the 2016 draft, Kirilloff has more than held his own in the minors with a .317/.365/.498 line and 36 home runs in 1,204 trips to the plate. He’s been ranked among the game’s best overall prospects for each of the past few seasons and made his MLB debut during the postseason last year.
Kirilloff’s impending promotion was a major factor in the Twins opting to move on from Eddie Rosario this winter, and it stands to reason that this promotion to the big leagues will now afford him the opportunity to seize an everyday role and cement his status as a long-term piece for the club. Even with last weekend’s brief promotion as the 27th man in a doubleheader, he’s spent enough time at the alternate site for the club to push his free agency back a year. If Kirilloff sticks in the big leagues from this point forth, the Twins will control him all the way through the 2027 season. He’d likely still qualify as a Super Two player, bringing him to arbitration eligibility after the 2023 campaign.
Gordon, 25, was the fifth pick in the 2014 draft, though his stock has fallen dramatically since then. Gordon did turn in a respectable .298/.342/.459 showing at Triple-A in 319 PA two years ago, but he was unable to play last season after testing positive for COVID. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked Gordon as the Twins’ 37th-best prospect back in January, writing that he “now looks like a fringe role player.”
With his continued weight problems and inability to play defense anywhere, it seems like Sano’s best days (which weren’t that good) are behind him. The character concerns about him the past two years aren’t good either.
Hopefully the Twins can find a team to fool and pawn Sano off on them for a prospect or lottery ticket.
WOW… DID YOU KNOW THAT WILLIANS ASTUDILLO HAS ONLY STRUCK OUT 97 TIMES IN HIS ***ENTIRE PROFESSIONAL CAREER*** DATING BACK TO 2009?
I had to type that in all caps because it’s so impressive.
Bill James really needs to tweak his sabermetrics and algorithms and add AT LEAST 5 points of WAR to Astudillo’s total just for that amazing statistic.
Under 100 career strikeouts and he’s in the 13th year of his professional career? My mind is blown.
He is moving at least 27 spots up on my favorite players of all-time list.
Bill James has nothing to do with WAR. He deals in Win Shares.
So is he still Nick Gordon or is he also becoming Nick Strange-Gordon?
Dee did that to honor his mother when she passed. He legally changed his name.
Different mother
Correct. Tom Gordon had 5 children with 4 different women. Little Dee Gordon-Strange is Nick’s half-brother.
His father, Tom Gordon (Flash) played in the major leagues from 1988 to 2009. His paternal half-brother, Dee Strange-Gordon, is also a major league player.
Sano on the IL with a broken skillset
Kirill-on-off-on-off
nice to see Gordon get a shot
Sano’s gotta be the most frustrating player for Twins fans. Ooodles of apparent talent, which even he doesn’t seem to care if he gets to it. And it’s not like Rocco et al are some type of Neanderthal organization; they seem well equipped to deal with player issues.
i swear I said this about a year ago and got shot down for it.
Is Larnach next? Cave still blocking him?
Hard to imagine Cave blocking anyone.
Happy to see Nick Gordon get a shot. I remember watching him in double A play for the Chattanooga Lookouts and he always seemed like a good hitter.
Bold prediction: Nick Gordon will be a pleasant surprise to this team kind of like Denard Span when he was first promoted when Torii Hunter went down with an injury. Laugh all you want at this comment. You heard it here first.
I don’t see Gordon as a future All Star, but I see him being a good contributor to the team. I think it is also some nice insurance to Jorge Palanco who I have not given up on, but wonder if there are more than injuries hampering his style of play. He has not been the same player of 2019 and before.
Why laugh when this is just to crazy….Jk I actually like this assessment as a Denard Span like player
I’ve been hoping Gordon would get a chance. Nothing against Blankenhorn or Riddle, but I was a little confused that they were getting called up
What forced the Kirilloff the Forbidden Planet?
Losing Rosario..thinking Kiriloff could hit..big mistake. And how many more close games are we going to let COLOME BLOW for us!! Thats at least 5 games he’s ruined!!Every appearance?!!! Obviously the bats have been mostly nowhere to be found. Having Kepler and Sano would help. Our starters deserve some freaking run support fellas. Mad as HELL!!!