Twins Slip in and Sign Sano

The Twins ended up being the winners of the Miguel Angel Sano derby, signing the allegedly 16 year old Dominican shortstop for $3.15 million.  This is reported to be more money than the Twins gave the seventy international prospects they signed between 2006 and 2008 combined and appears to reflect the fact that the Twins expect to increase their revenue streams considerably as they move into a new ballpark in 2010.

I say “allegedly” as to Sano’s age, because there has been an on-going controversy regarding his age.  MLB spent months investigating whether the 6′3″ and 190 lb Sano was really the age he’s claiming and ultimately concluded that they couldn’t confirm his age one way or the other.  This led to a lot of teams that had big interest in Sano to lose interest in shelling out the money necessary to sign him.

Not the Twins, however.  They are desperate for middle infield help, and he was the best Latin prospect out there.  Of course, it will likely be at least four or five years before he’s ready to play in the majors.