Pittsburgh Pirates to promote Gregory Polanco tomorrow
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The wait is finally over for Pittsburgh fans. Their up and coming star is finally coming up. The Pittsburgh Pirates announce that they have placed infielder Neil Walker on the 15-day DL after undergoing an appendectomy. With a spot open on the 25-man roster the Pirates thought it was time to bring up their star prospect. Before tomorrow’s game, the Pirates will recall outfielder Gregory Polanco from Triple-A Indianapolis.
The Pittsburgh Pirates believed that it was time to bring up Polanco, as it seems that the Super-2 deadline has passed, allowing them to save money and promote him to the big-leagues. It became apparent that the Pirates would bring up Gregory Polanco when it was announced that he was not in the lineup for Triple-A Indianapolis’s game tonight.
Gregory Polanco, 22, was named a consensus top-25 propect by the league entering the season. Baseball America named him into the top 10, while he was ranked the number 12 prospect in baseball by MLB.com. This was all voted on before he started his first “real” stint in Triple-A. In Triple-A this season, Polanco was hitting .347/.405/.540 with seven home runs and 49 runs batted in. In sixty-two games, Polanco collected 86 hits and 47 runs.
Despite all of these offensive numbers, he is far from being a bat-first prospect. He has very good defense, as he is projected as a center-fielder in the majors. With Andrew McCutchen in center, he will like be slotted into a corner outfield spot. He could easily become one of the best corner-outfielders in the game.
The Bucs will presumably move Josh Harrison from the outfield to second base until Walker comes back, at which point they will have to shuffle their defense again. What is guranteed is that Gregory Polanco will be in one of the corner outfield positions, most likely right field, for the foreseeable future.
Before his injury, Neil Walker was hitting .280/.353/.452 with eleven home runs and 35 runs batted in. Walker has been one of the best Pittsburgh defenders this season, as he has only committed one error in 61 games (257 chances).