Minnesota Twins prospect Miguel Sano has not played for the Double-A New Britain Rock Cats since Tuesday. A glance at the game log for that night would tell you Sano homered against the Portland Sea Dogs, which might make the fact that he has been riding the pine confusing. However, it was the way he acted after hitting that homer that got the 20-year-old benched.
Sano took a couple of steps down the first base line after blasting the homer and then paused briefly to admire it. He then proceeded to take a roughly 29-second trot around the base paths. As Hardball Talk pointed out, David Ortiz is considered a slug and he averages 28 seconds during his home run trot. No other MLB player exceeds 26 seconds.
New Britain manager Jeff Smith was not pleased with the antics, and Sano hasn’t played since. Sano is hitting .294 with 26 home runs and and 76 RBI between Single-A and Double-A this season, so Smith is obviously making a loud statement by leaving him on the bench. It’s probably better that he learn these lessons now.
