Twins' Miguel Sano Tests Positive for COVID-19, Quarantining Away from Team

The Minnesota Twins announced Saturday that slugger Miguel Sano tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic, Sano is in quarantine away from the team and will require two negative tests in order to rejoin the Twins for training camp.

The Twins also announced that utilityman Willians Astudillo tested positive for COVID-19, per Gleeman. MLB.com's Do-Hyoung Park added that Edwar Colina and Nick Gordon were diagnosed with the coronavirus previously as well, but not as part of the recent round of testing.

MLB and the MLBPA announced Friday that 31 players tested positive for COVID-19 in the first round of testing this week. When taking non-player staff members into account as well, 38 of the 3,185 people tested were diagnosed with COVID-19, which is a 1.2 percent rate.

Players began reporting to training camp this week in preparation for the start of the 2020 MLB season, which is scheduled for July 23.

After struggling mightily in 2018 to the tune of a .199 batting average with 13 home runs and 41 RBI, Sano bounced back in a big way last season and was a key part of a Twins team that set the single-season MLB record with 307 home runs.

Despite appearing in just 105 games, Sano set career highs with 34 home runs, 79 RBI and 76 runs scored, while also producing a slash line of .247/.346/.576.

Sano is a valuable commodity for the Twins not only because of his power; he is capable of playing both third base and first base and can also excel as a designated hitter.

With the signing of power-hitting third baseman Josh Donaldson during the offseason, Sano is likely to spend the bulk of his time at first during the 2020 campaign.

While the potential absence of Sano would leave a hole in Minnesota's lineup, the Twins are stacked with enough power hitters to make do. Donaldson, Nelson Cruz, Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario, Jorge Polanco and Mitch Garver headline what is unquestionably one of the best lineups in baseball.

The Twins won the American League Central last season and reached the playoffs, where they were eliminated in the American League Division Series by the New York Yankees.

Getting past teams like the Yankees and Houston Astros in the AL won't be easy, but with teams playing just 60 games this season, perhaps the truncated schedule will hide some of the weaknesses of the Twins' pitching.

Assuming Sano's recovery goes well, he figures to be available to play when the Twins play their first game of the 2020 campaign in about three weeks.