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Archives for August 2021

Yankees Place Zack Britton On 10-Day Injured List

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AUGUST 24: Britton is going for a second opinion, manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Lindsey Adler of the Athletic). Some form of surgery is apparently on the table as a potential outcome.

AUGUST 23: The Yankees announced Monday that they’ve placed lefty Zack Britton on the 10-day injured list with a left elbow sprain, recalled outfielder Jonathan Davis from Triple-A Scranton and reinstated righty Clay Holmes from the Covid-19-related injured list. Additionally, the Yankees paused Miguel Andujar’s minor league rehab assignment and transferred him to the 60-day injured list.

Last October, the Yankees picked up Britton’s $14MM option for 2022, as declining it would have allowed the lefty to become a free agent.  In a sense, the club made a $27MM commitment for 2021-22.  In March of this year, it became apparent that Britton would require arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone chip in his left elbow.  This delayed his season debut until June 12th.  Not long after, he returned to the IL with a hamstring strain.  Never a control pitcher, Britton saw his walk rate this year balloon to 17.1% in 22 appearances.  His typically ridiculous groundball rate has remained, but Britton also lost his seeming ability to repress batting average on balls in play (.230 from 2018-20).  The result has been heavy traffic on the bases and a 5.89 ERA, perhaps related to a drop in fastball velocity exceeding two miles per hour.

Britton had already tumbled down the Yankees’ bullpen depth chart, with the team’s highest-leverage work this month going to Jonathan Loaisiga, Wandy Peralta, and Chad Green.  Another pricey reliever, Aroldis Chapman, returned from an IL stint for elbow inflammation on August 18th.

Andujar has been on the 10-day injured list since July 10 due to a left wrist sprain, so since his 60-day clock is retroactive to that date, he now isn’t eligible to return until well into September. There hasn’t been any specific word on a setback, though since Andujar hasn’t played in any minor league rehab games since last Wednesday, something certainly appears to be amiss. Andujar only began his rehab assignment last Tuesday, appearing in two games.

Between this injury and his prior status of getting shuttled back and forth between Triple-A and the Yankees’ roster, 2021 is shaping up as another lost season for Andujar, who has hit .253/.284/.383 in 162 plate appearances over 45 games this year. Since finishing second in AL Rookie Of The Year voting in 2018, Andujar has managed only a .588 OPS over 276 PA at the big league level, due to both injuries and the fact that the Yankees seem to have largely moved on. Gio Urshela’s emergence in 2019 covered Andujar’s old spot at third base, and recent attempts to convert him to an outfielder also haven’t yielded any additional playing time.

Dodgers Activate Julio Urias, Designate Neftali Feliz For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced they’ve activated Julio Urías from the 10-day injured list. He’ll get the ball for this evening’s game against the Padres. To open active roster space, reliever Neftalí Féliz was designated for assignment. The move also opens a spot on Los Angeles’ 40-man roster, which now sits at 39.

Urías missed the minimal ten days after landing on the IL with a left calf contusion. The IL stint only cost Urías one start and served as a brief breather for the 25-year-old, who has already worked a career-high 139 2/3 innings this season. The left-hander has been excellent, posting a 3.29 ERA with an above-average 26.4% strikeout rate and a tiny 5.3% walk percentage.

That kind of reliability has been critical for a Dodgers rotation that has dealt with its share of injuries. Most notably, Clayton Kershaw has been out since July 7 with forearm inflammation. Kershaw threw a 20-pitch bullpen session consisting of only fastballs today, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). That’s obviously progress, but Roberts later acknowledged there’s some uncertainty about whether the three-time Cy Young Award winner would have enough time to build back arm strength to shoulder a traditional starting pitcher’s workload for the remainder of the season (via Juan Toribio of MLB.com).

Urías’ return to the roster could end Féliz’s Dodger tenure after a single appearance. The former Rangers’ closer was selected to the big league roster last week and pitched for the first time on Sunday against the Mets. He tossed a scoreless inning with a strikeout but will now find himself on waivers in the coming days. Féliz has been excellent this season at the Triple-A level, combining for a 2.45 ERA with a huge 38.8% strikeout rate and an average 9.7% walk percentage between the Phillies’ and Dodgers’ top affiliates.

Rangers Select Hyeon-jong Yang, Ryan Dorow

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The Rangers are selecting the contracts of left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang and infielder Ryan Dorow before this evening’s game against the Indians, according to Levi Weaver of the Athletic (Twitter link). Catcher Jonah Heim is landing on the COVID-19 injured list, joining four other Rangers (Charlie Culberson, Brock Holt, Drew Anderson and Mike Foltynewicz) on the COVID list. It seems Spencer Howard and Dane Dunning could join them, as neither player accompanied the team to Cleveland as part of health and safety protocols. Weaver notes that left-hander Jake Latz is expected to be selected tomorrow as part of the roster maneuvering.

Yang returns for his second stint on the active roster. The KBO veteran signed a minor league deal with Texas over the winter and was selected to make his big league debut in late April. Yang went on to make eight appearances — including four starts — and posted a 5.59 ERA with worse than average strikeout and walk rates (15% and 11.8%, respectively) over 29 innings. Texas designated the 33-year-old for assignment and passed him through outright waivers in June. Yang has worked 45 frames with Triple-A Round Rock this season, posting a 5.60 ERA.

Dorow, who just turned 26 over the weekend, was selected by the Rangers in the 30th round of the 2017 draft out of Division III Adrian College in Michigan. That’s not the draft profile of a likely big leaguer, but Dorow has earned a look at the highest level against the odds with solid numbers up through Double-A. The right-handed hitter owns .260/.347/.405 line across 1455 professional plate appearances, including a .333/.394/.600 showing over 99 trips to the plate with Double-A Frisco this season. He’s struggled in his first look with Round Rock, hitting .210/.305/.359, but Dorow has ample experience at each of second base, third base and shortstop in the minors.

Like Dorow, Latz is in line for his first MLB opportunity. A fifth-rounder out of Kent State in that same draft, Latz has spent most of the season in Frisco. The 25-year-old has a 4.69 ERA over 63 1/3 innings, but he’s punched out a very strong 30.9% of batters faced. That’s come with a slightly elevated 10.3% walk rate, but Texas will give Latz a look in the hope he can carry over his strong bat-missing capabilities to the highest level. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted Latz as the #50 prospect in the Texas organization in May, praising the southpaw’s above-average curveball.

Because that trio has been (or will be, in Latz’s case) selected to replace players landing on the COVID-19 IL, they can be removed from the active and 40-man rosters upon players’ returns from the COVID list. It seems they could be on the big league club for the near future, though, since COVID spread within the Texas clubhouse has now dealt a significant hit to their infield and rotation depth charts.

Caleb Smith Suspended Ten Games For Foreign Substance Violation

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Major League Baseball announced that Diamondbacks left-hander Caleb Smith has been suspended for ten games and fined an undisclosed amount “for possessing a foreign substance on his glove” during last Wednesday’s game against the Phillies. Smith is appealing the suspension. (Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported the news before the official announcement).

Smith was ejected from Wednesday’s game after a foreign substance check at the end of the eighth inning. The 30-year-old had passed a substance inspection earlier in the contest and vehemently denied that he used an illicit substance after the game. Smith is the second player ejected after a substance inspection. Mariners left-hander Héctor Santiago, who was ejected by the same umpiring crew that tossed Smith, unsuccessfully appealed his suspension and ultimately had to serve a ten-game ban in June.

Unless Smith’s suspension is overturned on appeal, the D-Backs will eventually have to play a man short. Players suspended for foreign substance violations cannot be replaced on the active or 40-man rosters.

Cardinals Sign Yadier Molina To One-Year Extension

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The Cardinals announced they’ve agreed to a one-year contract extension with Yadier Molina. The ten-time All-Star will remain in St. Louis for the 2022 season on a $10MM salary. Molina is a client of MDR Sports Management.

It’s not surprising the two sides were able to line up on terms, as they were known to be in extension discussions last week. Molina was believed to be seeking a one-year deal that matches or tops the $9MM salary on which he’s playing out the 2021 campaign, and he’s succeeded in landing exactly that. Molina didn’t sign that deal until this past January, and he’d been vocal about wanting to avoid lingering on the free agent market again this time around.

Molina’s no longer the MVP-caliber player he was at his peak, but he’s still a productive regular catcher even at age-39. This season, he’s hitting .259/.304/.376 with eight homers across 365 plate appearances, not far off the .268/.310/.388 slash line he compiled between 2019-20. That’s below-average offensive production overall, but it’s still fine work when considering the toll catching takes on players. Backstops have compiled just a .228/.307/.391 mark around the league. Molina’s offensive output is around par with the league average at the position.

That’s without considering his contributions on the other side of the ball. Molina is regarded as perhaps the best defensive catcher of his generation. As is the case with his bat, Molina’s glove has fallen off somewhat with age, but he’s still unquestionably a plus behind the dish. Molina has cut down seventeen of forty attempted base-stealers this season, a 42.5% rate that’s far better than the 24.4% league average.

In addition to neutralizing the running game, Molina has a reputation as one of the game’s best at the aspects of catching that are difficult or impossible to quantify. His once-elite framing metrics have fallen to around league average, but he still checks in as a viable receiver. And the Cardinals no doubt believe Molina brings intangible value from a leadership perspective to the pitching staff and clubhouse.

While Molina should still bring quite a bit to the table next season, it’s apparent his legacy as one of the best players in franchise history plays into the front office’s eagerness to keep him off the open market. No active player in MLB has been with their current team longer than Molina, who debuted with St. Louis in June 2004. The nine-time Gold Glove award winner was an integral part of the Cardinals’ 2006 and 2011 World Series teams. There’s plenty of reason for the club not wanting to risk a repeat of last offseason’s stalemate.

Molina recently hinted that next year could be the last of his illustrious career, and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak referred to 2022 as Molina’s “final season” in the press release accompanying the announcement of today’s extension. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter link) notes that the current expectation for both Molina and the Cardinals is that 2022 will indeed be his final year as a player. If that ultimately proves to be the case, he would retire as the rare one-franchise star.

With Molina wrapped up, the Cardinals figure to turn to Adam Wainwright, another impending free agent who has been in St. Louis for ages. Wainwright made his debut in 2005 and has led the St. Louis rotation for a good portion of the past fifteen years. Despite turning 40 years old this month, Wainwright has been one of the better pitchers in the National League this season. Assuming he wants to keep playing beyond this year, the Cardinals would have every reason to look to hammer out an extension with Wainwright as well.

The Molina extension will push the Cardinals’ estimated 2022 player payroll just north of $90MM, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Nolan Arenado ($35MM if he doesn’t opt out), Paul Goldschmidt ($25.33MM), Miles Mikolas ($17MM) and Paul DeJong ($6.17MM) join Molina as players with notable guaranteed contracts on the books. St. Louis will also have to cover arbitration raises for Jack Flaherty, Harrison Bader, Alex Reyes, Dakota Hudson, and Tyler O’Neill, among others. The Cardinals opened the 2021 season with an estimated $163MM payroll.

St. Louis could look to address the rotation and middle infield this winter. Catcher, where Andrew Knizner has struggled in limited action as Molina’s understudy, would’ve been a question mark in the unlikely event Molina went elsewhere. It seems the Cardinals are prepared to roll with a Molina-Knizner pairing again next season, and top prospect Iván Herrera could be worked into the mix midseason with an eye towards 2023. The lion’s share of playing time behind the plate at Busch Stadium will fall to Molina, as it has for the past sixteen years.

Katie Woo of the Athletic first reported the agreement and its terms.

2021-22 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings

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Much has changed since our last installment of these rankings back on June 10th.  Six players signed extensions in lieu of free agency, none beyond Lance Lynn’s two-year, $38MM deal with the White Sox.  Trevor Bauer has been removed from the rankings, as he remains on paid administrative leave after being accused of sexual assault.

Four players who might have been considered for qualifying offers were traded in July: Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, and Starling Marte.  Those players are now ineligible for qualifying offers.  Kevin Gausman, Marcus Stroman, Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke, and AJ Pollock are among those who are ineligible on account of having received one previously.  The Rockies inexplicably retained Trevor Story at the trade deadline, so he will be subject to a qualifying offer.

As a reminder, these power rankings are based on my projection of the players’ earning power.  Keep in mind that the current collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1, though that doesn’t necessarily mean free agency will be frozen.

1.  Carlos Correa.  Prior to this year, Correa had played 110+ games in a season with a 120 wRC+ exactly once, back in 2016.  This year, Correa has avoided the regular injured list and is fourth among qualified shortstops with a 136 wRC+.  Correa did go on the COVID-19 IL in July, but he missed only a week.

Just 27 years old in December, Correa also has youth on his side, and appears headed toward a monster free agent contract.  The $340MM deals of fellow shortstops Fernando Tatis Jr. and Francisco Lindor will surely be a target.

2.  Corey Seager.  After getting hit by a pitch and suffering a broken right hand in mid-May, Seager missed two and a half months.  Upon his return July 30th, the Dodgers had acquired another of the game’s top shortstops in Trea Turner.  Turner has switched to second base as a member of the Dodgers, but serves as a strong option at shortstop for 2022 for L.A.  Seager didn’t have much to say on the topic, but clearly his negotiating leverage took a hit with the Turner acquisition.

As for what Seager can control, he’s shown no ill effects from the broken hand.  He’s got a stellar 134 wRC+ in 87 plate appearances since returning from the injury.  Seager is only about five months older than Correa, so he too will be seeking a very long contract in excess of $300MM.

3. Kris Bryant.  19 games into his Giants career, Bryant’s solid season has continued.  The Giants have enjoyed his versatility, playing Bryant at third base as well as all three outfield positions.  He’s saying all the right things about the possibility of staying in San Francisco long-term, telling Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, “It’s definitely enticing.”  Even with a new deal for Brandon Crawford, the Giants have less than $36MM on the books for 2022, so they could certainly afford Bryant.

4. Trevor Story.  Though Story expressed confusion at the Rockies’ decision not to trade him, he hasn’t let it affect him on the field.  Since the trade deadline, Story sports a 147 wRC+ in 81 plate appearances.  29 in November, Story isn’t quite as young as Correa and Seager, but he’s still in good shape for a contract well beyond $100MM.  There’s still a case to be made for Story above Bryant, and the Rockies’ shortstop has outplayed Bryant since June.

5. Freddie Freeman.  Freeman has turned it on since June, posting a 151 wRC+ in 324 plate appearances.  32 in September, Freeman remains one of the best hitters in baseball.  The Braves wisely held onto the 2020 NL MVP despite a 12% chance at the playoffs at the trade deadline, and now the club has a 77% chance according to FanGraphs.  Braves fans continue to wonder why the club hasn’t hammered out a deal with their perennial All-Star.

6. Kevin Gausman.  Gausman has scuffled as of late, with a 5.17 ERA and 10.6% walk rate in his last seven starts.  However, he remains the prize pitcher of the free agent class, and he has seven regular season starts plus the playoffs to cement his free agent bona fides.  Dating back to 2020, Gausman has a 2.94 ERA and and 30.4% strikeout rate in 205 2/3 innings for the Giants.

7. Marcus Semien.  Semien joins this list for the first time, as he’s putting together his second MVP-caliber season within three years.  Maybe his 53-game 2020 season was the fluke, and Semien really is one of the best players in the game.  31 in September, he’s a candidate for at least a strong five-year deal in free agency.  Semien has played mostly second base this year in deference to Bo Bichette, but as a free agent he’ll be a consideration at both middle infield positions.  Semien’s 5.2 WAR is only bested among position players by the incomparable Shohei Ohtani.

8. Marcus Stroman.  Stroman, 30, ranks seventh among qualified NL starters with a 2.84 ERA in 145 1/3 innings.  He succeeds on the strength of his home run prevention and solid control and is a candidate for a five-year deal.  Stroman has shown no rust after opting out of the 2020 season.

9. Robbie Ray.  Ray, with an identical WAR to Stroman at the moment, presents an interesting contrast.  Ray’s 30.7% strikeout rate ranks second in the AL, coupled with a career-best 6.4 BB%.  It’s truly shocking to see Ray with such a low walk rate, as he had baseball’s worst walk rate – by far – last year among those with at least 50 innings.  He ranked the second-worst in that regard in 2019.  While Toronto’s $8MM deal for Ray has turned into a masterstroke, the lefty will be very difficult to value as a 30-year-old free agent.

10. Nick Castellanos.  With a 146 wRC+, Castellanos has been the seventh-best hitter in the NL this year.  He sports a solid 121 mark since returning from a microfracture in his right wrist on August 5th.  Castellanos, 30 in March, has the ability to opt out of the remaining two years and $34MM on his contract with the Reds after the season.  He’ll almost certainly do that, and reject a qualifying offer from the Reds as well.

Honorable mentions

Max Scherzer, Carlos Rodon, Chris Taylor, Javier Baez, Michael Conforto, Starling Marte

Scherzer and Rodon in particular just missed making my top 10.  Even at age 37, Scherzer could land a three-year deal in the $100MM range.  But he could also seek something just above two years and $72MM, which would result in a new record for average annual value.  Rodon is having a season for the ages after being non-tendered by the White Sox and then returning on a $3MM deal.  However, he’s currently on the IL for shoulder fatigue, and even at age 29 he’ll be hard-pressed to find a five-year deal given his health history.  Taylor, the Dodgers’ super-utility man, has a 133 wRC+ since the start of 2020 and will likely surprise many with the size of his next contract.  Still, it figures to fall short of $100MM.

Mets To Activate Francisco Lindor From Injured List

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The Mets are activating star shortstop Francisco Lindor from the 10-day injured list before tonight’s game against the Giants, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those to relay. He’ll be making his first appearance since mid-July after missing five weeks with a right oblique strain.

Things were looking up for the Mets before Lindor hit the IL on July 17. New York had been leading the National League East for the prior couple months and looked to have a good chance at snapping a four-year playoff drought. That’s no longer the case, as the Mets have fallen flat in August and dipped below .500 in recent days. New York enters play tonight sporting a 61-63 record, sitting in third place in the division. They’re six and a half games back of the Braves and two games behind the Phillies, giving them very little margin for error if they’re to make a playoff push over the season’s final five-plus weeks.

For the first time, Lindor will pair with trade deadline acquisition Javier Báez in the middle infield. The Mets acquired Báez from the Cubs in the hope that he could hold down shortstop for a few weeks before sliding to second base upon Lindor’s return. Unfortunately, Báez missed ten days himself due to back spasms, but he made his return to the lineup over the weekend.

Lindor started the season very slowly, but he’d begun to find some rhythm offensively before the injury. Overall, he’s carrying a .228/.326/.376 line over his first 364 plate appearances. That’s career-worst production — no doubt a disappointing start to his time in Queens — but Lindor has continued to offer Gold Glove caliber defense and should see an improvement in his hitting numbers, since he’s been plagued by a .248 batting average on balls in play.

Reds Activate Tejay Antone, Designate Sean Doolittle For Assignment

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The Reds announced they’ve reinstated right-hander Tejay Antone from the 10-day injured list. To open space on the active roster, Cincinnati designated southpaw Sean Doolittle for assignment. The move also clears another spot on the 40-man roster, which now sits at 37.

Antone has missed the better part of three months dealing with forearm issues. He landed on the IL with inflammation on June 11, then returned after a minimal stint. Just four days later, he was placed back on the IL with a forearm strain that has kept him out ever since. Before the injury, Antone had been the Reds’ best late-inning weapon. He’s worked to a 1.87 ERA over 33 2/3 frames this season, striking out a fantastic 33.1% of opponents against an average 9.4% walk rate. It’s the second consecutive quality season for the 27-year-old, who posted a 2.80 ERA over 35 1/3 innings as a rookie in 2020.

Cincinnati welcomes back their top reliever at an opportune time. The Reds’ recent hot streak, coupled with the Padres’ free fall, has Cincinnati up a game over the Friars with a little less than six weeks remaining in the regular season. That’s a far better position than the Reds were in as recently as a couple weeks ago, but it’s also nowhere near a comfortable advantage. The Cincinnati bullpen was a disaster earlier in the season, but they’ve performed better over the past few weeks.

Doolittle has been a fixture in that relief corps for the entire season. He’ll now lose his spot as part of a broader makeover in the late innings. In addition to Antone, Cincinnati welcomed Lucas Sims back from a lengthy IL stint earlier this month, and they overhauled the bullpen before the July 30 trade deadline. The Reds brought in Mychal Givens, Luis Cessa and Justin Wilson via trade, pushing Doolittle out of the picture.

The veteran southpaw was one of the sport’s premier relievers from 2012-18. He broke in with the A’s and eventually earned the closer’s role in Oakland, a job he retained after being traded to the Nationals midway through the 2017 season. Doolittle pitched at a league average level in 2019 before struggling through an injury-wrecked 2020 campaign to end his time in Washington. He signed a one-year, $1.5MM guarantee with the Reds in February.

Doolittle has stayed healthy this season, but he’s amidst the worst year of his career. The 34-year-old has worked 38 1/3 innings of 4.46 ERA ball across 45 appearances, striking out 23.7% of opposing hitters against a 10.4% walk rate. That’s not disastrous work — it’s a little worse than league average after adjusting for the Reds’ hitter-friendly home park — but it’s nowhere near the elite heights Doolittle reached at his peak.

That said, it’s plausible another team will add Doolittle off waivers over the coming days. Even if he’s only a league average pitcher at this stage of his career, that kind of competence could upgrade many teams’ current middle innings situations. And Doolittle’s low base salary would reduce the financial responsibility for claiming teams, as he’s only due around $311K from now through season’s end. Should Doolittle pass through waivers unclaimed, he’d have the right to elect free agency while collecting the remainder of that guaranteed salary as a player with five-plus years of big league service.

Gregory Polanco Goes Unclaimed On Waivers

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Aug. 24: Polanco went unclaimed on waivers and has been returned to the active roster, Mike Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (via Twitter). He’s not in today’s lineup but remains with the club.

Aug. 22, 8:14pm: Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says that, if Polanco goes unclaimed, he will remain with the Pirates. (Twitter link 1, 2 and 3.) This seems to imply that, if Polanco clears waivers, the team will choose not to outright him off the roster. According to Mackey, placing Polanco on waivers was about giving him the chance to play for a contender, if any are interested. Although, speculatively speaking, the notoriously thrifty Pirates would also be delighted to get the $2.4MM off their books, as well as the $3MM buyout on his 2022 option.

7:16pm: The Pirates have placed Gregory Polanco on outright waivers, according to Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic. Polanco is playing on a salary of $11.6MM this year, with about $2.4MM of that still to be paid out. Any team claiming him would be responsible for that remaining salary. But if he goes unclaimed, Polanco would be able to elect free agency. At that point, any club could sign him and just pay him the prorated league minimum, with the Pirates being on the hook for the remainder.

Whether he is claimed or not, this seems to be the end of Polanco’s time as a Pirate, an unceremonious conclusion to a relationship that once had such promise for both parties. Originally signed by Pittsburgh in 2009 as a 17-year-old, Polanco debuted in 2014 and, after two solid seasons, showed enough promise that the club agreed to give him a five-year extension, which guaranteed him $35MM, in April of 2016. At the time, Polanco’s line of .249/.316/.369 was nothing outstanding, but it was expected that the 24-year-old would grow into more power and provide more offensive production to pair with his excellent defense and speed. With the team having already extended Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen, it was thought that Polanco could be the third piece of a superb outfield that they could build on for years to come.

For the remainder of the 2016 season and the first two years of the deal, everything seemed to be going in the right direction. Over those three seasons, Polanco hit 56 home runs and stole 37 bases, producing an overall line of .255/.324/.455. That was good enough for a wRC of 105 and 5.3 fWAR. Thanks in no small part to Polanco, the Pirates qualified for the National League Wild Card Game three years in a row, from 2013 to 2015. Unfortunately for both he and the team, it’s been mostly downhill since then. In September of 2018, Polanco underwent surgery for a dislocated shoulder and hasn’t been able to play at anything approaching that level since.

In 2019, Polanco was only able to get into 42 games and, even when on the field, had his line slide to .242/.301/.425, a wRC+ of 87. With the shoulder issues still ailing him, Polanco went on the IL June 22nd and didn’t make it back on the field for the rest of the year. Polanco returned in 2020 but saw his numbers slip even farther, to a dismal line of .153/.214/.325 during the COVID-shortened season. That amounted to a wRC+ of 41.

This year, Polanco has bounced back from that nadir, but only slightly. In 101 games, he has put up a line of .198/.277/.343, which adds up to a wRC+ of 67. With the Pirates sitting on a record of 44-80 and firmly into rebuild mode, it seems they wanted to allocate Polanco’s playing time over the season’s final weeks to players who will be auditioning to be part of the club’s future plans.

Polanco now seems destined to move on from the only organization he’s ever known. Despite three straight disappointing seasons, he won’t be turning 30 until next month, meaning there’s potentially plenty of time for him to turn things around and re-energize his career. However, it may be hard for him to get a lengthy opportunity to do so this year. Competing teams will be giving playing time to players with a more recent track record of success, whereas rebuilding team will want to use that time to showcase younger building blocks, as the Pirates are doing now.

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