Could Jorge Polanco be a fit for the Mariners?
Could Jorge Polanco be a fit for the Mariners?
Jorge Polanco is an often forgotten name when discussing the best offensive middle infielders in baseball. Could the Twins decide to move him with a glutton of middle infield options on the way?
Over the last few days it has been reported that Seattle would like to add a left-handed middle infielder to their lineup, we covered that extensively here. Jerry Dipoto’s comments about adding considerable future payroll don’t lead to much confidence that the club will add a major shortstop or any big name on the open market.
We know Jerry Dipoto has traditionally really valued players with club control and could opt to trade real prospect capital for a fixture in his middle infield. We have discussed the names ad nauseam, Gleyber Torres, Kolten Wong, and Brandon Lowe are all options.
Dipoto typically does something that few would expect, which led me to think Jorge Polanco could be on Seattle’s radar. Polanco is a 29-year-old middle infielder for the Minnesota Twins, and in my opinion, is one of the most underrated players in baseball.
He is just 29 years old and has after signing an extension still has three years remaining on his deal. The Dominican infielder has played since 2015 for Minnesota, having accrued just over six years of MLB service time. Luis Arraez, Nick Gordon, Austin Martin, and Edouard Julien are all players who could be nice second base options for the Twins as soon as next season.
Arraez is likely their first baseman next season, but Gordon was a good player last season. Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee are the Twins’ top 2 prospects and are both shortstops, combine that with Martin and you have a crowded and young middle infield that is all close to the big leagues.
Minnesota needs starting pitching in a bad way, and Seattle could provide this in a number of different ways. Emerson Hancock, Bryce Miller, Taylor Dollard as well as additional prospects could be available in return for Polanco. It is hard to generate a theoretical package for Polanco but he is a very good player who has 3 years of control left.
Polanco had a bit of a down year while dealing with a knee injury, playing in just 104 games. Despite this, he still put up a 119 WRC+ while clearly not at full strength.
While his shortened 2020 was a down year, Polanco has been at least a 111 WRC+ every year since 2018. He is a well above-average bat, even if he hit .235 last season. Despite a low average Polanco ranks in the 91st percentile of xwOBA in 2022, meaning his output could have and should have been much higher.
Polanco has also had a few seasons with good power production, and you could likely pencil him in for 15-25 home runs a year. To add on to all of this Polanco ranked in the 98th percentile of BB% and a K% of just 21.3%.
He is elite at controlling the strike zone and getting on base while providing power and an above-average bat. The Seattle front office no doubt would love his profile, it would be interesting to see if Minnesota would move him.
He has played shortstop in the past but seems to be settled as a second baseman for the future. His metrics were not good last season but it was clear he was struggling with a knee injury that hampered his range (ranked in the 8th percentile of Outs Above Average). He will be better defensively next season if healthy.
So to recap, Polanco is an above-average bat in a position of need who has multiple years of club control remaining. He controls the strike zone and is a player the Mariners would surely love. The 29-year-old switch hitter may just be the perfect under the radar trade target for Jerry Dipoto this offseason.
