Polanco’s non-start part of ‘plan’
CINCINNATI — This was the plan all along, Pirates manager Derek Shelton insisted. With baseball shifting back to 162 games in 2021, Shelton wanted to pace some of his players, even if he knew it might look a little funky early on.
That was Shelton’s explanation for why Gregory Polanco did not start against the Reds Tuesday at Great American Ball Park, but there’s very little about the Polanco situation right now that’s conventional.
He’s the Pirates’ highestpaid player, has one hit in 14 at-bats (.071) after going 0 for 4 with two strikeouts Monday and occasionally looks closer to finding the winning Powerball ticket than his timing.
“[Polanco] is not the only guy [ who’s struggling],” Shelton said. “We have a couple other guys who we need to get going also. I think the big thing is staying positive and trying to identify things that are going to help and make it better.”
Shelton said he spent some time talking to Polanco Tuesday and expected hitting coaches Rick Eckstein and Christian Marrero to do the same. The break for Polanco was only from games, too, Shelton added.
He would still go through normal hitting drills and cage work.
“Obviously want more consistent at-bats out of him,” Shelton said. “I think [Tuesday] will be a good work day for him.”
Polanco was one of the Pirates’ hottest hitters at the start of spring training, going 7 for 16 (.438) over his first 6 games with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs and 8 RBIs. But for whatever reason, the shortened, more consistent version of Polanco’s swing disappeared. So did his timing, Shelton said.
The past 13 games (spring training and regular season) have really seen Polanco struggle, with the right fielder hitting just .081 (3 for 37) with 13 strikeouts. He also has been prone to chasing pitches way out of the zone.
Polanco hasn’t produced much, but he’s also had company in the Pirates outfield. Add together Polanco, Anthony Alford and Dustin Fowler, and the three were hitting .067 (2 for 30) with 15 strikeouts prior to Tuesday’s game.
As for the timing, there are a couple of things the Pirates can do, Shelton said. One involves using the velocity machine and trying to crank that up a little bit. The other is to have Polanco take batting practice from a closer distance, limiting the time between contact and the release of the ball.
“Timing issues, as we’ve talked about, are the nemesis for hitting coaches and for hitters,” Shelton said.
The hope here is that the changes work quickly, and Polanco can rediscover his timing. But, the manager cautioned, that doesn’t always happen.
“Sometimes those things don’t instantly happen,” Shelton said. “Sometimes it automatically transfers. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. You just have to keep working on it.”
Commodore pride
You may have noticed: Vanderbilt has a couple of pitchers who could have a shot at this baseball-as-their-future thing. Pitchers Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter are a combined 14-0 this season with a collective ERA well below either’s weight.
They’ve struck out 132 while walking 28 over 85 combined innings, and the Pirates will have their pick of the prized pitchers later this summer. In the current Pirates clubhouse, Rocker and Leiter have a fan in former Commodores star Bryan Reynolds, who says he loves keeping tabs on his college team.
“Yeah, they’ve got some good players over there, and I watch them when I can,” Reynolds said. “Leiter and Kumar, really special. They’re going to have really nice careers, and we’ll see how things progress. We’ve got a really, really fun team over there to watch, for sure.”
It’s obviously not just those two. Vanderbilt is ranked No. 2 in the country by Baseball America for a reason. They also have a kid — Dominic Keegan — slugging .838 over 19 games and a coach in Tim Corbin who’s one of the best, if not the best, in college baseball.
“Corbin’s great,” Reynolds said. “He’s just a topnotch guy all the way around, and then the culture he’s built there is a winning culture. They attract good players, they attract players that have great potential, and they extract everything they can out of them. It’s special.”