The Miguel Sano era in Minnesota is over.
The Minnesota Twins announced Monday that they have declined to pick up the option on the slugger, ending his 13-year association with the team.
Sano would have been due for a $14 million payment if the Twins had kept him, but the Twins instead opted to buy him out from his contract for $2.75 million.
Also becoming free agents after the Twins declined to pick up their options are starting pitchers Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy, while Sonny Gray will be sticking around after the Twins extended him through the 2023 season.
For Sano, it marks the end of an ultimately disappointing tenure in Minnesota that at one time promised so much.
He signed with the Twins in 2009 with a $3.15 million signing bonus, which was at the time the largest for a Latin American player outside of Cuba.
Making his Major League debut in 2015, he hit 18 home runs and 52 RBI in 80 games, and was in the running for Rookie of the Year.
He was an All-Star in 2017, hitting 28 home runs and 77 RBI with a batting average of .264.
But he hit poor form in 2018 and was demoted, which came in the same year in which he was investigated after allegations he forcibly grabbed and kissed a photographer in the Twin Cities.
He bounced in 2019 as part of the “Bomba Squad,” hitting 34 home runs and 79 RBI., but since then, he has struggled with fitness and injury problems, with his average nosediving and strikeouts spiking in 2020 and 2021.
