It took an appendectomy to Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Neil Walker for it to finally happen, but the wait is finally over for prized prospect Gregory Polanco and Pirates’ fans as Polanco will make his long awaited MLB debut on Tuesday against the Chicago Cubs.
Since we now know that the Pirates won’t wait until 2018 to promote Polanco, the only question remaining is what we should expect from him?
It’s always difficult predicting the fate of young players, but having gotten the opportunity to cover Polanco some at both the Double-A and Triple-A level, I can tell you for sure that the kid is special. It’s just a matter of how long it will take for his talents to take over at the major league level.
Polanco is talented enough to have a similar impact that Yasiel Puig has had on the Los Angeles Dodgers from the time he was called up last season. But at the same time those aren’t very fair projections as most rookies aren’t capable of that.
But Polanco likely won’t likely be most rookies as he has the chance to become the game’s next great 5-tool talent.
Yet don’t expect him to be the savior of this current Pirates team. Those aren’t realistic expectations either.
While Polanco is currently sitting with an insane .347/.405/.540 line with seven home runs, 49 RBI, and 15 stolen bases over 62 games, he very well could struggle during his initial big league look.
While he has amazing bat speed and a nice short swing, he can and likely will strike out a lot.
After the Pirates signed Polanco out of the Dominican Republic in 2009, he struggled at the low levels of the minors between 2009 and 2011 and wasn’t even considered as a top prospect in Baseball America‘s eyes.
However after he exploded onto the scene with a .325 average and a .910 OPS at Single-A in 2012, the Polanco hype train got going and hasn’t stopped since.
He should have and likely would have been up already if it weren’t for the dreaded Super 2.
At the minimum Polanco give Pirates manager Clint Hurdle a consistent presence in right field that Hurdle hasn’t really had the luxury of having during his tenure in Pittsburgh.
The best case scenario is that the kid explodes onto the scene in a major way.
It would be something if Polanco steps to the plate and knocks the first pitch he sees out of PNC Park ala Starling Marte’s first major league at bat. But even if something storybook like that happens on Tuesday night, keep in mind that Marte also has struggled in a big way at times also.
If something like that happens, I can see Polanco jerseys and tee-shirts flying off the shelves before his first nine innings are in the books.
Polanco will do some great things the rest of the season, providing the Pirates keep him up for the duration. He also is likely to struggle as well.
Do yourself a favor and don’t make him out to be the savior.
If you do you will be disappointed.
Polanco certainly improves this current Pirates team and will help them win more games. But this team also has other issues to figure out in order to become a legitimate contender.
He will be a star one day.
Unfortunately no one knows if that day is today.
If Polanco doesn’t come out this first week or and tear the cover off the ball, don’t jump off the bandwagon.
He’s just a piece of the puzzle and not the entire finished puzzle.
Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated
