UPDATE: It turns out that the accident which led to Miguel Sano’s arrest was not a nefarious matter after all.
A Dominican Republic national police spokesman told ESPN’s Enrique Rojas that Sano was with his wife leaving a nightclub when he was questioned by police because his vehicle did not have a license plate and he didn’t have his driver’s license on him. After the conversation, Sano began to back up his pickup truck without realizing that the police officer had not moved his motorcycle from behind him. Sano was detained by police for several hours after the accident, but the officer who was injured “declared that the accident was not intentional.”
So, much ado about something that sounded like something but turned out to be, well, not nothing, but not anything bad.
10:22 AM: Last night reports emerged that Twins third baseman Miguel Sano was arrested, and then released, following a hit and run accident in which he allegedly ran over a police officer outside of a club in the wee hours of Sunday morning. The incident reportedly left the police officer with a broken leg.
The police report -- viewed by local news sources but not yet available publicly as far as we can tell -- said that Sano was driving a white truck without license plates and was not carrying identification. Sano was released from custody after promising to meet with authorities today.
The Twins have released a statement:
It has been a controversy-filled year for Sano. Last December he was accused of sexual assault by a female photographer but no charges were filed and Major League Baseball subsequently declined to discipline Sano. On the baseball side of things, offseason leg surgery and then an April hamstring injury led to an out-of-shape Sano’s 2018 season being delayed and resulted in (a) the worst year of his big league career; and (b) an extended minor league assignment.
Obviously we’ll be hearing more about this latest incident in the coming days.