Terry Ryan addressed the media from the Target Field dining room prior to Friday’s game on a number of topics, ranging from Max Kepler’s maturation as a big leaguer, Miguel Sano’s role while up with the big club and why Byung Ho Park can work on while at Triple-A Rochester.

Here’s a sampling of what he had to say:

• On Sano playing third base and DH’ing now that he’s returned from the disabled list: “The way things set up right now, that’s OK by everybody…including Miguel. I’m sure he’s comfortable over there at third, getting back there. With Kepler’s emergence, we want to make sure he gets his playing time as well. It just fits a little better now.”
• On what the team told Park to do with his upcoming time at Rochester: “To relax. Just go out and have some fun. It’s apparent for the first six weeks or two months here he was taking competitive at-bats, playing quite well at first base. Things started to get to the point where they were working him over pretty good. So hopefully he’ll go down and start enjoying the time, and have a little success and gain his confidence back. I think that was waning. He’s a good guy, a good worker and a great teammate. He’s very popular. I think everybody is rooting for him to go back there and see if we can get him going again is all.”
• On if playing a familiar position can aid Sano’s offense: “That could be. Let’s see how he does defensively. He’s going to answer that question for himself. If he goes over there and hits but doesn’t play good defense…..well. For me his defense in right field was not an issue. It was adequate. It was not great, but no one is admitting that. It was adequate. One of the things Miguel did a few times that was very noticeable — with the power of his arm — was that he could make a difference with that arm. Now he misplayed a few balls, but that was anticipated as well. Let’s see what he does here at third base. It might be a little bit of a work in progress there too.”
• Ryan was hesitant to completely close the door on Sano in the outfield completely. “There may be a day where Paul (Molitor) decides to put him back in right and give Kepler a day off against a tough lefty.” Ryan cited the Thursday matchup against Carlos Rodon, a particularly tough lefty when things are going well for him.
• On if he’s surprised Park would struggle, especially in spite of his age (he’ll be 30 next week): “Not that I saw him in Korea, but most of the guys over there thought that it would take a little time. I think we got pleasantly surprised the first month or so when he hit quite a few home runs; that was encouraging. Unfortunately the league can catch up to you a little bit, and it probably did. The one thing that everybody stressed that saw him over there was that his makeup was solid, and I suspect he’ll be resilient enough to handle this move. The next time he comes back he’ll have a bit more consistent approach.”
• On if Kepler’s play has altered any of the Sano-Park plans: “Well if Kepler wasn’t giving us something, you’d probably have to send him back. You aren’t going to sit him. He’s done better than that. He gives us a pretty good at-bat. He’s done well against lefties. He can really run. His defense has been pretty good.”

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne covers the Minnesota Twins for Zone Coverage and is also the site's senior editor. He hosts the Midwest Swing podcast for the site as well. He and his wife Amanda live in the outer Twin Cities suburbs with their daughter, Harper.

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