First full year will help Pirates’ Polanco grow

There is no question that Gregory Polanco is the Pirates answer in right field. The 22-year-old was signed as an international free agent in 2009 and placed in the organization’s Dominican academy with hopes of making it to the big leagues.

What came next surpassed any expectations that most had about Polanco’s abilities. He quickly began a climb through the minor league system which culminated with a jump in 2013 from High-A Bradenton to AAA Indianapolis in one season turning heads in the organization.

Polanco then immediately went to the Dominican Winter League where he posted a .331/.428/.494 split and a .922 OPS earning him MVP honors at the young age of 21.

With all of the success that Polanco had, more people began to take notice of him leading to a No. 10 ranking in Baseball America’s 2014 MLB prospect list. It also built high expectations by the time he arrived in Pittsburgh on June 10 of last season.

Polanco met those expectations early on, culminating in mid-June with a 5-for-6 night in Miami while hitting the game-winning home run in extra innings, but once opponent’s pitching staff’s were able to see what he could do, they were able to contain him.

After posting a solid .288 average in June, Polanco posted a .190 average the rest of the way before being sent back to AAA in August.

This isn’t unusual with a rookie, though, as some of the best in the game experienced some sort of difficulties in their first go-around in the Majors.

Below shows the first year of some of the best outfielders in the game compared to Polanco’s along with their first full season.

(Statistics based on number of at bat’s and players with similar amounts to Polanco.)

Gregory Polanco