Twins, Sanó agree to 3-year extension

The Twins not only avoided arbitration with third baseman Miguel Sanó, but they agreed with the slugger on a three-year, $30 million extension on Tuesday.

Sanó will be paid $27 million for the first three years of the deal, with a $14 million club option or a $3 million buyout for 2023.

Sanó, 26, was previously eligible to be a free agent after the 2021 season, but his new deal runs through the '22 season with the club option, buying out at least two years of free agency. Sanó hit a career-high 34 homers in 105 games last year, hitting .247/.346/.576 with 79 RBIs.

Sanó has played with the Twins for five seasons, batting .245/.338/.498 with 118 homers and 315 RBIs in 486 games. He finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year Award balloting in 2015 and was an All-Star in '17. But Sanó has also dealt with his fair share of injuries in his career, including surgery to repair a stress reaction in his left shin in '17 and an operation to repair his right Achilles tendon prior to the ’19 season.

But when healthy, Sanó has been the kind of power hitter the Twins were envisioning when they signed him to a $3.15 million bonus out of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic in 2009.

Sanó has been entrenched at third base the last three seasons after a failed experiment in right field in 2016. But he could move to first base if the Twins add a third baseman, as they have made a four-year offer in the neighborhood of $100 million to free agent Josh Donaldson, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.

Sanó is the latest of the Twins' core to receive an extension, as both Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler received deals before last season. The three were all part of the same international signing class in 2009. Kepler and Polanco both signed five-year extensions before the season with Kepler receiving $35 million guaranteed and Polanco $25.75 million.