Danny Santana, the shortstop for the Minnesota Twins who shocked even his own organization with a .319/.352/.472 season in 101 games at short and center field last year, has this season struck out only the third most often among his teammates -- 49 times.
The issue is, that while Brian Dozier and Trevor Plouffe have fanned on a few more occasions, they've also earned more than 20 bases on balls each.
Salazar has walked twice.
Fortunately, he's been hit by two pitches, inflating his .218 batting average into a .235 on base percentage. This from Minnesota's leadoff hitter.
Mix in an inability to exit the yard and you've completed the slash line with a slugging average of .291, which explains why Santana is currently working out the kinks in Rochester, NY.
The good news is, no more Major League strikeouts. The bad news is he's stuck, for now, at two walks.
The organization will have to parse whether Santana's problems hitting stem from his lack of strike zone control, or whether no one is walking him because they don't fear pitching in the zone. Very likely it's more former than latter, which spells long-term issues for the young Dominican.
An unsustainable .405 BABIP last year masked some of these issues in the first place, but even then he walked about five times as often. In other words, stay tuned, but don't expect him to ever repeat that rookie campaign.
Still, as a shortstop and center fielder, Santana would have great value if he could just get on base a little less often than league average, pop an occasional dinger and field his positions well. And Paul Molitor could help him by finding someone else -- perhaps someone who knows how to walk? -- for the top of the order.
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