Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chunichi Dragons are signing Miguel Sano to a one-year contract worth $1.3 million, according to Francys Romero. The deal is pending a physical.
The 32-year-old was once a top talent and feared slugger with the Minnesota Twins from 2015 to 2022, belting 162 home runs with a 116 OPS+ over 694 games. In 2017, he swatted 28 homers with an .859 OPS and was named an American League All-Star.
Since leaving Minnesota, however, Sano’s standing in the major league market has soured, making him a frequent candidate for a move to Asia in recent offseasons. He went unsigned in 2023, then appeared in 28 games with the Los Angeles Angels in 2024 before being released in July. The native Dominican did not play affiliated ball in 2025, but has played exceptionally well in winter ball, slashing .315/.376/.663 with nine long balls in 24 LIDOM games.
Sano now joins a Dragons club that has not reached the postseason since 2012. Under first-year manager Kazuki Inoue, Chunichi jumped from sixth place to fourth in the Central League standings, but their .335 slugging percentage still ranked at the bottom of the circuit, highlighting their long-standing lack of power production. However, Vantelin Dome Nagoya will introduce a right-field “home-run terrace” next season, a change expected to boost home run totals, and the team’s young position player core appears increasingly poised to help end the drought.
Though Sano lacks a successful MLB track record since 2022, he has remained elite in underlying indicators like average exit velocity, bat speed, and barrel rate, while also posting an above-average walk rate. His career 36.5% strikeout rate is an obvious concern when projecting how his profile will translate against NPB’s increasingly high-caliber pitching, but he still possesses the upside to produce at a level comparable to impact foreign bats like Franmil Reyes, Luke Voit, and Domingo Santana. 20-plus home runs is a reasonable projection for his first season in NPB’s current dead-ball environment.
The 6-foot-4, 272-pounder is expected to slot in at first base, as NPB will not adopt a universal designated hitter until 2027. That likely pushes fellow import Jason Vosler — who posted a 133 OPS+ in 2025 — to third base, while also creating a bit of a logjam across the rest of the infield for players such as Mikiya Tanaka, Hiroki Fukunaga, Kaito Muramatsu, Yasuhiro Yamamoto, Takaya Ishikawa, Ryuku Tsuchida, and Orlando Calixte.
WBN Japan: https://worldbaseball.com/league/japan/
Photo: Minnesota Twins’ Miguel Sano plays first base against the Chicago White Sox in a baseball game Wednesday, June 6, 2018, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
