Minnesota Twins: Jorge Polanco has finally arrived

Minnesota Twins SS Jorge Polanco is leading the team in a number of hitting metrics and there’s reason to believe he has arrived.

Right now, the Minnesota Twins find themselves atop the AL Central with a two-game lead over the Cleveland Indians.  The Twins were always thought to be the likeliest candidate to challenge Cleveland for the AL Central throne this season.

With the Indians stumbling out of the gate and having a litany of injuries, most recently to Corey Kluber, the Twins are looking to capitalize.  While yes, technically it is still early in the 2019 season, we are through nearly 20% of games.

A big reason the Twins are where they are has been their SS Jorge Polanco.  The 25-year-old is somewhat a post-hype player being a well-heralded prospect then inconsistent in his first few showings at the big league level.  In his best season, he put up a 1.6 fWAR while only hitting for a below average 89 wRC+.

In the current golden era of shortstops, Polanco hasn’t stood out as the Twins would have hoped.  This season though, Polanco is hitting his best ever with a with an outstanding 168 wRC+ that bests even his slugging teammate Nelson Cruz.  That stick combined with defense and baserunning has made Polanco good for 1.6 fWAR tying his best season ever through 1/5 of the season.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

The Minnesota Twins have to be thrilled with the production as their patience Polanco is finally paying off.  So just what has Polanco done to slug like Nelson Cruz?  It looks to be a good old fashion case of a swing change paying off.

Let’s start with what Polanco was.  Looking at his Statcast profile, we can see Polanco has hit the ball at below average exit velocities, at a rather abysmal 83.6 MPH.  Mix that with a 35% ground ball rate and you have a recipe for lots of easy 6-3 putouts.

Furthermore, he struck out 18% of the time and walked less than 10%.  Contact has never been an issue for Polanco, rather the quality of contact has been the real issue.  That brings us to his 2019, Polanco has made some intentional changes that have him hitting the ball better than ever.

To start, Polanco is hitting the ball harder than ever.  This year his exit velocity is up to 87.7 MPH, which is slightly above the league average of 87.4.  He has also increased his launch angle up to 22.2° where before he averaged approximately 15°.

Look no further than Polanco’s batted ball profile for proof of his swing change.  This season, Polanco has upped his flyball rate all the way to 52.7%.  He has also reduced his Oppo% by 9 points and distributed that to the middle and pull side.

The offensive results have been undeniably excellent, triple slashing .327/.400./.618 with nearly as many homers (5) as all of last season (6).  Furthermore, Polanco’s weighted on-base average (wOBA) is sitting at .425 which is in the top 5% in the entire league.

Polanco is also extremely fast, ranking in the 81st percentile for sprint speed, which makes him as fast as Lorenzo Cain and Yasiel Puig.  This gives him the ability to leg out more doubles and triples that boosts his power numbers even if he isn’t necessarily a standard power hitter.

If there is an area of concern for Polanco it is wondering if he can sustain this type of power output with meager exit velocity readings.  You can absolutely succeed with Polanco’s exit velocity.

If you look at the exit velocity leaderboard, you can see Polanco grouped with above average hitters like Jose Altuve and Andrew Benintendi.  The key for Polanco, like these other hitters, is to maximize his air contact because that is when he hits the ball hardest.  Consider his exit velocity on air contact (92.4 MPH) verse ground contact (76.5 MPH).

All things considered, there’s no reason for Polanco to ever hit anything on the ground given the disparity in exit velocity, and ultimately production.

If the Minnesota Twins are going to be more than a flash in the pan, Polanco must continue to replicate his early season production. The results have been there and it will be interesting to watch how pitchers start to adjust to his new swing.

Polanco has always been a guy people thought could be an above average SS and he is finally showing why this season.  Players are always one tweak away from greatness.  Polanco appears to have finally made his.