The Minnesota Twins organization has decided to bench top-level prospect Miguel Sano “for a few games” after he took 29 seconds to complete a home run trot in Class AA game.
Sano got the news from new Britain manager Jeff Smith, who formally began the disciplinary action by holding him out of Thursday’s game. There is no time frame for Sano's return, Twins farm director Brad Steil said Thursday.
“Just a normal player-development decision," Steil told the media, declining to characterize the misdeed any further. "We have discipline for all sorts of things that we do. This is one of them."
After hitting the blast captured on video, Sano can be seen taking a few steps out of the batter's box before stopping in apparent admiration of his drive against Portland pitcher Bobby Lanigan, recently released by the Twins. Sano then slowly makes his way around the base paths, sauntering as much as trotting.
The decision of when to return Sano to the playing field will be left up to Smith and his staff. "When they think it's time for him to get back in the lineup," Steil said, "he'll get back in there."
Sano recently represented the Twins at the All-Star Futures Game in New York on July 14. He has four homers in his past six games, offsetting a mediocre .231 batting average since being promoted to Double A late last month. Baseball America rated him third in its midseason prospect rankings.
"He's going through a little bit of a learning process in Double-A," Steil said of Sano. "He's probably been frustrated at times. Twenty years old in the Eastern League -- that's a tough league. Like any young player, he's going to have to learn to make adjustments."