Twins activate Miguel Sano from the DL, but is he ready?

Miguel Sano has been on the disabled list since August 21st with a stress reaction in his shin. Though his recovery has been slow, and it doesn’t even sound like he’s done much running, the Twins activated him from the DL today. He is technically available to play in this weekend’s series against the Tigers.

I’m personally a bit surprised. Sano only resumed taking practice swings Wednesday after more than a week off, according to Rhett Bollinger. Overall, Sano’s progress has been pretty slow. He hasn’t done much, if any, running that I’ve heard of.

I think the reasoning here is to just get Sano some live at-bats before the postseason to see where he’s at. Is he still hurting too much, or is his timing way off? Then he probably won’t make the wildcard roster—but the team can’t figure these things out if he doesn’t play somewhere. He can’t go on a rehab stint or anything since the minor league season is long over.

How much action will Sano even see, though? The team had previously said they don’t plan to play Sano in the field at all for the rest of the year, so he’ll only serve as a DH. Maybe even only as a pinch hitter.

I’m not expecting much from Sano. Yes, he’s hit .267/.356/.514 with 28 home runs through 111 games this season—which would be awesome to have back for the wildcard—but after missing more than two months of time I don’t expect him to be able to jump back in and play at that level immediately. Especially if he’s still hurting, and he certainly doesn’t sound like he’s 100%.

Hopefully Sano will prove me wrong.