The Twins will place first baseman Miguel Sano on the 10-day injured list Friday because of a strained right hamstring, Megan Ryan of the Star Tribune reports. The team will also recall outfielder Alex Kirilloff and infielder Nick Gordon, per Dan Hayes of The Athletic.
Sano suffered the injury on Tuesday, forcing him to miss the second game of the Twins’ doubleheader against the Athletics. The IL placement is the latest negative development in what has been a rough start to the season for Sano, who has batted .111/.310/.244 with two home runs and a career-low .133 ISO (down from a lifetime mark of .253) in 58 plate appearances. Sano has started the vast majority of the Twins’ games at first this year, but when he hasn’t played there, the team has used Willians Astudillo and Mitch Garver.
The call-ups of Kirlloff and Gordon, two of the Twins’ most promising farmhands, could inject some life into a team that has struggled to a 6-11 start.
The 23-year-old Kirilloff, MLB.com’s 22nd-ranked prospect, appeared in two games and took three plate appearances earlier this season, but he may now get a more extensive look with outfielders Max Kepler and Kyle Garlick on the COVID-19 list. Since Minnesota took him 15th overall in the 2016 draft, Kirilloff has held his own in the minors with a .317/.365/.498 line and 36 home runs in 1,204 trips to the plate.
Gordon, 25, was the fifth pick in the 2014 draft, though his stock has fallen dramatically since then. Gordon did turn in a respectable .298/.342/.459 showing at Triple-A in 319 PA two years ago, but he was unable to play last season after testing positive for COVID. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked Gordon as the Twins’ 37th-best prospect back in January, writing that he “now looks like a fringe role player.”
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