Sano in right field

Miguel Sano reaches for a fly ball in Sunday's game.
He dropped it for his first charged error of the spring.

The Monday print column highlighted the competition for the Twins reserve outfield role(s).

On Sunday, something happened that might have boosted the chances for somebody like Darin Mastroianni as opposed to somebody like Oswaldo Arcia: Miguel Sano committed an error in right field.

The big man has not be tested often during exhibition games. This was, I believe, the second time the "ugly finder" rule -- the ball will find a poor fielder -- has come into play in spring training.

I'd like to say two bad plays in three weeks isn't a terrible ratio, but it's spring training, and he's not playing every inning of every game.

Back to first principles here: The Twins are not going to make a panic "it's isn't working" move. Sano is going to be the right fielder. There are going to be misplays. He's working on it.

But Sunday's error highlights the question: Will Paul Molitor feel forced to use a more certain defensive right fielder late in close games? Obviously he'd rather keep Sano's bat in the lineup than remove him; leads can be lost without balls going to right field.

An outfield move

Erik Komatsu had 19 at-bats with St. Louis this season.

How much do the Twins NOT want Ben Revere to be their fourth outfielder?

This much: Today they picked up on waivers one Erik Komatsu, dumping in the process the strikeout king Clete Thomas.

Komatsu, like Revere, is a 24-year-old left-handed outfielder. Unlike Revere, he has all of 19 at-bats above the Double-A level.

The Twins will be Komatsu's fourth organization in less than two years — Milwaukee, Washington, St. Louis and now Minnesota. His minor-league numbers look like those of a leadoff-type hitter — decent on-base percentages, a couple season of 20-plus steals, not a lot of power. He's played more center field than corner outfield in the minors, but I think it's safe to say he's no Revere for range, and I'm sure he has a better throwing arm.

What the Twins actually have here is a do-over on their Rule V pick of last winter, when they took pitcher Terry Doyle and ultimately returned him to the White Sox. Komatsu was picked later in the draft by St. Louis and made the roster, but the Cardinals now were trying to get him through waivers.

So the Twins can't just send Komatsu to the minors; Washington still has the ultimate claim on him.

Contemplating Rene Tosoni

Rene Tosoni: A home run
on Tuesday, four strikeouts
on Wednesday. He's hitting
.171 in 35 at-bats.

A while back, in a post about the stalled career of New Ulm native Jamie Hoffmann, I outlined the traditional model of the fourth or fifth outfielder — left-handed (or switch-hitter) with the speed to play center field but lacking the bat to play regularly.

Rene Tosoni, who has been getting semi-regular playing time while Delmon Young is on the disabled list, does not exactly fill those requirements. Left-handed, yes. Center fielder, not so much. The prospect books suggest he could play there, but off what little we've seen during this brief trial, he's as much a center fielder as Michael Cuddyer is.

He looks like a 'tweener to me — not enough defense to play center regularly, not enough bat for an outfield corner. I suspect he's about 40 or 30 years late, that his tools would have been a better fit with the platoon-oriented managers of the '70s and '80s.

But in a future Twins outfield that could feature multiple regulars with center-field speed — Denard Span, Ben Revere, Joe Benson, Aaron Hicks — Tosoni might fit a bench role. On the current team, he doesn't offer anything the Young-Cuddyer-Jason Kubel troika is missing.

Which makes him a likely demotion if Young is indeed activated before today's game. Revere should stick because he can play center and goes back to Rochester when Jason Repko is ready.