Twins' Sano frustrated with lack of progress from shin injury

The Minnesota Twins are clinging to the second wild-card spot in the American League and are managing it without slugger Miguel Sano, who has become frustrated with his lack of recovery from a shin injury sustained Aug. 18.

Sano has been participating in running drills and batting practice over the past week, but he's not progressing as quickly as he would like, which is upsetting for the hulking Dominican, who was in the midst of a tremendous season before the injury took place.

"Obviously, it's frustrating," Sano explained to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com through a translator. "I was on the field every day, but now I'm hurt and the team is winning and having fun. I want to be part of that, so it's frustrating. We're still working with the trainer to get back as soon as possible. But we don't know at what point right now."

Sano told Bollinger he isn't ruling out a return before the end of the regular season, but the shin is still bothering him, especially while running.

"We're working to get back on the field, but it obviously still bothers me and still hurts," Sano said. "When I hit it's not as much, it's more of the running. But once I'm done hitting and relax a little bit, it swells up and hurts."

The 24-year-old, who was hitting .267/.356/.514 with 28 home runs and 77 RBIs in 111 games before getting hurt, is being careful with how much he pushes himself in drills to make sure he doesn't miss being apart of a potential Twins postseason run.

"Ideally, I want to get to a point where I'm healthy and I know I won't have any problems," Sano said. "I don't want to go out there and then get hurt and miss the rest of the season and then come next year not healthy because I made it worse."