FanPost

The Twins should learn something from Mets skipper Terry Collins

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Michael Conforto is to the Mets what Miguel Sano is to the Twins: The most talented hitting prospect either organization has developed in some time; players who don't offer a lot as fielders or base runners, but guys who have the talent to pose a serious menace at the plate. Both players were promoted aggressively and showed their talent in their first year with the big club.

But there is one critical difference between the two players: The Mets understand how to utilize a talent like Conforto, while the Twins have been clueless in managing Sano.

Conforto is a below-average fielder in LF. The Mets are playing Yoenis Cespedes in CF, but have a gold-glove caliber CF on the bench in Juan Lagares, who is a pretty solid player. So when first basemen Lucas Dada whet on the DL for what will likely be a lengthy stint with a stress fracture in his back, some pundits assumed the Mets would shift Conforto to 1B, which would greatly improve their OF defense while keeping the bat of their best young hitter in the lineup.

But Terry Collins said absolutely not. There was no way he was going to mess with his best young hitter by forcing him to play an unfamiliar position. "He is not a first baseman," said Collins. "We here are not here to take a kid who has never played first base at the major-league level -- and in a situation were we're expected to win a lot -- and put an inexperienced guy in a tough position. As I've tried to gingerly say, this isn't high school where you put the fat kid over at first."

Conforto will benefit from Collin's wisdom. He will continue to develop as a hitter not having to be distracted by learning a new position as the nation's baseball fans watch. The Mets skipper was not willing to risk screwing up Conforto's potential as a hitter, even though the Mets are in the thick of a pennant race and expected by fans to make the playoffs. He did so even though the Mets have the deep pockets to buy stud hitters when the need arises.

Isn't that a stark contrast to the Twins and how they have handled Sano? A team going nowhere this year insists on forcing its best hitting prospect to learn on the fly in RF.

Will the Twins mishandling of Sano slow his development as a hitter? We know Sano's wRC+ is down 40 points this season (151 to 111) while Conforto is holding stead (up to 138 after 134 last year). But that, of course, is a small sample size, and we can never know for sure if the Twins short-sightedness will cost Sano some of his ceiling. But we can be certain that the Twins have created an obstacle for their best hitting prospect and, in doing so, created a risk. It's the sort of risk that Terry Collins wouldn't take -- and that's a lesson from which the Twins should learn.