Twins' Miguel Sano mashing again after rocky start

Miguel Sano‘s much-hyped return following a lost 2018 season was nearly derailed before it began.

An offseason foot injury delayed the 26-year-old’s debut until May 16, but his swing was cause for concern.

His struggles came to a head in mid-June.

Sano went 0-for-7 with five strikeouts back on June 18, then 0-for-7 with three more on June 27, as the Twins tinkered with his mechanics.

And while there were signs of improvement, the results were worrying: Sano went 3-for-38 at the plate over that span, striking out 21 times.

Remarkably, he and the Twins’ coaching staff figured it out on the fly: Sano is hitting .271/.376/.596 with a .973 OPS and 14 home runs in 47 games since July 1.

Those look an awful lot like the numbers that landed Sano his first All-Star nod back in 2017: .276/.368/.538 with a .906 OPS and 21 home runs in 82 games during the first half.

MLB, home runs since July 1

Player	Team	AB	HR	AVG	OBP	SLG
Mike Trout	LAA	164	20	0.286	0.410	0.719
Eugenio Suarez	CIN	174	19	0.270	0.351	0.626
Yuli Gurriel	HOU	177	18	0.378	0.424	0.768
Nelson Cruz	MIN	134	17	0.320	0.397	0.768
Josh Donaldson	ATL	172	17	0.279	0.406	0.627
Ronald Acuna Jr.	ATL	199	16	0.281	0.370	0.547
Cody Bellinger	LAD	168	15	0.244	0.343	0.565
Jose Ramirez	CLE	178	15	0.320	0.354	0.691
Paul Goldschmidt	STL	178	15	0.286	0.338	0.589
Juan Soto	WAS	175	15	0.280	0.401	0.582
Rafael Devers	BOS	205	15	0.331	0.375	0.673
Justin Turner	LAD	163	15	0.282	0.357	0.613
Gleyber Torres	NYY	172	14	0.273	0.327	0.558
Jorge Soler	KCR	162	14	0.290	0.422	0.598
Max Kepler	MIN	186	14	0.231	0.319	0.510
Jose Altuve	HOU	193	14	0.352	0.407	0.652
Miguel Sano	MIN	166	14	0.271	0.376	0.596

Put another way, Sano would be on pace for 48 home runs over the course of a full season.

Sano is tied for 13th in the majors with 14 homers since July 1, and tied for second on the Twins over that span, with Minnesota’ second-best slugging percentage.

Only Nelson Cruz has been better.

Sano helped the Twins to a pair of wins over the Detroit Tigers during their most-recent series, hitting three home runs and a double in three games to push his slash line to .247/.344/.579 on the season with a .923 OPS and 26 home runs.

Despite the struggles and the late start, Sano is closing in on his first 30-homer season as a pro.

If he keeps it up down the stretch, that bounce-back season could still materialize.

Statistics courtesy of Sportradar

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