TFD: The Twins' Danny Santana isn't playing shortstop, and people are wondering why

September 18, 2014 at 2:29PM

Here's the Twins lineup tonight against Detroit, which once again has possible shortstop of the future Danny Santana playing center field.

With Eduardo Escobar ailing, many assumed it meant Santana — who probably should be getting a lot of looks at shortstop regardless — would be in that spot pretty much regularly for the rest of the year.

Instead, Eduardo Nunez is playing shortstop. Our guy La Velle E. Neal III tweeted that Twins manager Ron Gardenhire addressed this pregame, saying Santana will get time at shortstop but he wanted to get Nunez at bats against David Price, against whom he has a good history (.805 OPS in 34 ABs, which qualifies as a good history vs. Price).

The only flaw in the logic, as Aaron Gleeman points out, is that Nunez has also played outfield for the shorthanded Twins this season. It would have been a pretty seamless move to have Nunez play left, Jordan Schafer (who is in left) play center and Santana play short.

Maybe it's much ado about nothing and Santana will get a lot of time at shortstop down the stretch. Perhaps Gardenhire thinks this is the best possible lineup — offensively and defensively — against Detroit, and he's respecting the fact that the Tigers are in contention.

Or maybe there's something weird going on with Santana at short and the lineup in general.

about the writer

about the writer

Michael Rand

Columnist / Reporter

Michael Rand is the Minnesota Star Tribune's Digital Sports Senior Writer and host/creator of the Daily Delivery podcast. In 25 years covering Minnesota sports at the Minnesota Star Tribune, he has seen just about everything (except, of course, a Vikings Super Bowl).

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