Miguel Sano aims to show Twins he can handle the outfield

FORT MYERS, FLA. – One of the distinctive sounds of Twins spring training this year is the thunderous crack when young slugger Miguel Sano connects with a pitch during batting practice.

Another sound is the earth rumbling as Sano runs around the outfield learning the nuances of a new position.

About an hour before the Twins take the field for their morning workouts, Sano heads to a field behind Hammond Stadium, chasing down fly balls hit by outfield coach Butch Davis. Even standing alone in right field, the 6-foot-4, 263-pound Sano looks imposing.

A year ago, Sano was one of the top prospects in baseball — as a third baseman. He was needed at designated hitter last season to inject some life into a production-starved lineup. Now he is being asked to move to right because the Twins don't want the 22-year-old to become a career DH and they have an everyday third baseman in Trevor Plouffe. Instead of being squeamish about learning a new position, Sano is embracing the opportunity.

"I have a chance to be on the field and help my team with my defense," Sano said, "and I'm too young to be a DH."

Friday, Davis used a fungo bat to launch fly balls as Sano sprinted around the outfield. At the end of the workout, Sano came in, the two talked and then shook hands. Davis patted Sano on the back as he headed back to the clubhouse to prepare for the team workout.

There will be many of these early-morning drills as the Twins prepare Sano for his first major league games as a right fielder.

"It's going to take a lot of work," Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said. "It is not going to be seamless."

Sano was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2009 to a $3.15 million contract, at the time a Twins record for a player on the international market. He was a shortstop at the time, and the Twins knew Sano was going to grow out of the position. Yet they kept him there for two years in the minors so he could learn the game from that perspective. He moved to third base in 2012 and very well could have made his major league debut there in 2014, had he not missed that entire season because of Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.

Healthy in 2015, Sano opened the season at third base for Class AA Chattanooga and was hitting .274 with 15 home runs and 48 RBI through 66 games. The Twins were hanging around the playoff picture despite a sputtering offense, so Ryan called up Sano on July 2. Over the next 80 games, Sano hit like a DH, batting .269 with 18 home runs 52 RBI and a .385 on-base percentage. He finished third in AL Rookie of the Year balloting.

The Twins pursued Korean slugger Byung Ho Park during the offseason aware that if they landed Park it would cement Sano's shift to the outfield. Ryan said he had no intention of trading Plouffe, who has become a solid third baseman, to open up an infield spot for Sano.

"Why can't we use both of them?" Ryan said.

As a DH, Sano spent games riding an exercise bike in the clubhouse or hitting in the cages between at-bats, trying not to feel like a glorified pinch hitter.

"I missed [playing defense] a lot," Sano said. "I played 80 games total, and I played eight at my position."

Shortstops often are the best athletes on a team and can be moved around the field. Brewers great Robin Yount moved from shortstop to center field at age 29 and won an MVP award there four years later. Closer to home, Plouffe and Michael Cuddyer were Twins first-round picks as high school shortstops who moved to third and dabbled with second base before moving to the outfield. Cuddyer finally stuck in right field while Plouffe settled at third base after 26 games in right field over 2011-12.

The skills should translate to the outfield. Shortstops are mobile, agile and have strong arms. Instincts are another factor, which the Twins are about to find out about.

"I want to see what kind of release he has, the accuracy of his arm, the jumps he gets, the angles he takes," Ryan said of Sano. "Those are the things that will ultimately dictate how good he can be. He used to be a shortstop. The reason we are doing this is because he is athletic and can really throw and he's a surprisingly good runner. That equates into an outfield skill set so we're going to give this an opportunity."

Plouffe, who said he feels he could have been a good outfielder if he had stayed there, believes Sano is sincere about making the move work. Sano has to take batting practice for his teammates seriously, because that's the time to work on jumps and reads.

"He's got the work ethic to do that and he's prideful that he wants to be good out there," Plouffe said, "so I think he will. It gets a little monotonous out there, but you really have to focus. That's the time you are going to get the most accurate readings off of balls. [Using] the fungo is different."

Teammates already are on Sano about his throws back to the infield. He can't just turn and fire the ball in, like he has. He must get used to finding the cutoff man.

Another thing, pointed out by second baseman Brian Dozier, is communication. Imagine Dozier and Sano converging on a sinking fly ball to short right field. Who emerges from that collision?

"I gotta talk to Terry Ryan," Dozier joked. "There's got to be some kind of liability I can take out or something when they put a guy that big out in right field."

Turning more serious, Dozier added, "We're going to work through it this spring, make sure we're going to be on the same page."

At 263 pounds, Sano is going to be among the bigger corner outfielders around. Some recent comparables are Adam Dunn, who was an outfielder from 2001 to '09 before moving to first base. Dunn was listed at 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds. Carlos Lee was listed at 6-2 and 270 pounds. It can be argued that Sano is a better athlete than both of them.

While Paul Molitor believes Sano can become a good outfielder, the Twins manager is concerned about whether Sano can remain healthy while doing it.

"I think his body type concerns me … are we going to be able to keep him on the field?" Molitor said. "I wouldn't say he's an injury-prone guy, but he's a big-muscled guy that it's going to be a demanding thing for him to get out there and run around, and coming on and off the field nine times a day, it's going to be an adjustment."

That's why the Twins don't want Sano to throw his body around the outfield and, especially, into the wall. That could be a hard sell, as young players tend to believe they can make every play.

Sano next week will be working with his predecessor as Twins right fielder, the now-retired Torii Hunter, whose No. 1 priority this spring will be to teach Sano the right way to play the outfield. Sano predictably feels like he should go after every ball he can get to because that's the way Hunter played.

"I need to make those plays, too," Sano said.

That message was relayed to Hunter before he boarded a flight to Fort Myers on Friday.

"Oh man, he doesn't want to do that," said Hunter, a nine-time Gold Glove winner who sacrificed his body to make plays. "It hurts!"

And more important, Sano's offense is too vital to a club that believes the playoffs are a realistic goal in 2016.

"We want to try to get to the point where he is average, then we will proceed from there," Davis said. "We set some high goals, and sometimes guys will go out there and try to do too much. We want to take it step-by-step."

Spring training games start Wednesday, when the real test begins. So far, Sano enjoys the outfield because the ball isn't on top of him like it is at third base, appropriately called the hot corner. The shortstop-turned-third baseman-turned-right fielder believes he will be fine as an everyday right fielder.

"I can be like Mike Trout," Sano said, laughing. "Oh no, not like him. But I can be good."