Polanco, 31, was a highly-touted prospect with the Pirates and emerged as a valuable piece of their club in the middle parts of the previous decade. An all-around player, Polanco posted double-digit stolen base totals in four of the five season from 2014 to 2018, as well as getting to double digits in home runs three times. His best offensive season was 2018, when he hit 23 home runs and stole 12 bases in 130 games. He finished that campaign with a .254/.340/.499 batting line for a wRC+ of 123.

However, that season was ended when Polanco injured himself on an awkward slide. He dislocated his left shoulder and suffered a bone bruise in his left knee and seemingly wasn’t himself afterwards. He was limited to just 42 games in 2019 and hit at a below-average level when on the field. He generally stayed on the field in 2020 and 2021 but hit just .191/.261/.345 over those two seasons.

Polanco was likely going to be limited to minor league contracts if he stayed in North America for 2022 but instead went to Yomiuri. He got into 138 games for the Giants, hitting 24 home runs and producing a batting line of .240/.306/.457. That performance was solid enough to get him another NPB job in 2023, though he’ll be moving to a new club.

Despite the many ups and downs in his career, Polanco is still just 31 years old and could return to the majors at some point if he stays healthy and continues producing in Japan.

News first broke of talks between Polanco and teams in the NPB back in mid-December. Polanco was not likely to get a Major League deal. Polanco has seen a once-promising career derailed by injuries that led to his release from Pittsburgh. Still just 30-years-old, Polanco will look to rebuild some value with his time in Japan.

Polanco owns a career .241/.309/.409 triple-slash line across 3,220 plate appearances, though he hasn’t been a positive contributor by rWAR since 2018. That year’s .254/.340/.499 slash (123 wRC+) feels like a distant memory, as Polanco has limped to a combined .203/.270/.364 batting line in 723 plate appearances since. His once minimal strikeout rate — he fanned at just a 14.6% clip in 2017 — has skyrocketed to 30.2% in the past three seasons.

His MLB career consists of eight seasons from 2014-2021, all with the Pirates. He did sign a minor league deal with the Blue Jays after his release in 2021, but he did not make an appearance in the bigs for Toronto. That said, he raked over 101 plate appearances in Triple-A, slashing .374/.436/.747 in that small sample. The Giants were no doubt encouraged by that showing.

It’s been a swift decline for the now-30-year-old Polanco, who once ranked among the game’s elite prospects and was seen as a key building block in Pittsburgh. The longtime Pirates outfielder decimated Triple-A pitching while rising through the minor league ranks and eventually drawing praise as the No. 10 and No. 13 prospect in the entire game, respectively, on the 2014 rankings of Baseball America and MLB.com.

While Polanco did have a few solid seasons in the big leagues, including two with 20-plus homers and 10-plus steals (2016 and 2018), he only ever had one season where he was a decidedly well above-average offensive performer (2018). That year’s .254/.340/.499 slash (123 wRC+) feels like a distant memory, as Polanco has limped to a combined .203/.270/.364 batting line in 723 plate appearances since. His once minimal strikeout rate — he fanned at just a 14.6% clip in 2017 — has skyrocketed to 30.2% in the past three seasons.

In fairness to Polanco, injuries have undoubtedly taken their toll on his body and played a role in sapping his production. While he was mostly healthy through the 2017 season, save for a couple of minor hamstring strains, the 2018 campaign marked the beginning of more serious physical troubles. That September, while playing out the final weeks of the best year of his career, Polanco both dislocated his shoulder and sustained a significant bone bruise in his left knee on an awkward slide into second base while legging out a double.

The shoulder injury required surgery and came with a recovery timetable of up to seven months. Polanco missed the first three weeks of the 2019 season but clearly wasn’t right upon being activated. He appeared in just 42 games over the next seven weeks before returning to the injured list with inflammation in that surgically repaired shoulder, and he never made it back to the field that year.

Polanco continued to receive opportunities in Pittsburgh, due in no small part to both that prior prospect pedigree and the fact that he’d inked a five-year, $35MM extension early in the 2016 season. The Bucs had a pair of club options that would’ve covered the 2022 and 2023 seasons, so there was good reason to give Polanco every opportunity to recapture some of his pre-surgery form. That didn’t happen, and Pittsburgh finally released Polanco following a DFA late in the 2021 season. He signed a minor league deal with Toronto on Aug. 31 but didn’t end up playing in the Majors with the Jays; he did, however, post a huge .374/.436/.747 batting line in 101 plate appearances with Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate, perhaps lending some hope for more productive days ahead.

If Polanco does head to NPB and does manage to rebound, he’s still young enough that a Major League comeback is plenty viable. (He won’t turn 31 until Sept. 14 of next season.) A strong year in NPB could also simply open the door for a raise and/or multi-year deal to remain overseas. At the very least, signing in NPB would lock in a guaranteed 2022 salary for Polanco, which wasn’t likely to happen in Major League Baseball, where he’d presumably have been in line for a non-roster deal with an invite to Spring Training somewhere.

Polanco finds a new home shortly after being released by the Pirates over the weekend. That brought an end to Polanco’s twelve-year tenure in the Pittsburgh organization, which began when he was signed during the 2009-10 international signing period. The powerful corner outfielder eventually emerged as one of the game’s most talented prospects, peaking as Baseball America’s #10 overall farmhand entering the 2014 season.

That year, Polanco made his MLB debut and took over as the Pirates regular right fielder. While his career got off to a slow start, the left-handed hitter eventually made good on some of his promise. Polanco hit .254/.340/.499 (123 wRC+) over 535 plate appearances in 2018, seemingly setting the stage for him to settle in as a core piece of the Bucs future.

Unfortunately, Polanco underwent season-ending shoulder surgery that September. He’s never been anywhere close to the same since that point. Over the past three seasons, he has hit just .203/.270/.364 across 723 trips to the dish. Those struggles continued to mount this season, as the 28-year-old posted only a .208/.283/.354 line before Pittsburgh moved on.

Needless to say, the past few years haven’t gone as Polanco or the Pirates had hoped. There’s no risk for the Blue Jays in brining him aboard on a minor league deal to see if a change of scenery and coaching can help him regain any of the promise he showed a few seasons ago. The Pirates remain on the hook for the balance of Polanco’s $11MM salary (as well as a $3MM buyout on a 2022 club option).

Toronto will only Polanco the prorated league minimum salary if he makes it onto the big league roster, with that mark subtracted from Pittsburgh’s obligations. Because the Jays worked out a deal with Polanco before September 1, he would be eligible for their postseason roster. That’d require him to perform well enough to earn an MLB look and the Jays to erase a four and a half game deficit in the Wild Card race over the season’s final month. Polanco will again reach free agency this offseason.

Luciano was cut loose last week to open a spot on the Jays’ 40-man roster. He’ll now return without requiring a 40-man spot. Luciano has spent the season with Double-A New Hampshire, where he’s posted a 3.41 ERA across 34 1/3 innings but suffered through a pair of stints on the injured list.

3:03PM: The Pirates have designated outfielder Gregory Polanco for assignment.  According to the team’s official media release, infielder Cole Tucker “is expected” to be called up from Triple-A to take Polanco’s spot on the active roster.

The move comes less than a week after Polanco was placed on outright waivers, though he remained in the organization after no other teams claimed him.  Today’s release officially cuts ties between Polanco and the Bucs, and the team will remain on the hook for the roughly $5.28MM still owed to Polanco — his remaining 2021 salary, and the $3MM buyout of his $12.5MM club option for 2022.

“Gregory has been a true professional throughout his entire Pirates career, including in our conversation with him regarding today’s roster move,” Pirates GM Ben Cherington said.  “He has been a great teammate who always handled himself with class and took a great deal of pride in representing the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh.  We wish him nothing but success moving forward.”

After rising through the minor league ranks as one of baseball’s top prospects, Polanco had some stops and starts in his efforts to establish himself as a productive Major League regular, though that didn’t stop the Bucs from locking him up on a five-year, $35MM contract extension in April 2016.  Strong seasons in both 2016 and 2018 (the latter a 23-homer, .839 OPS campaign over 535 plate appearances) seemed to indicate that the Pirates had made a wise investment, yet shoulder surgery in September 2018 ended up essentially derailing Polanco’s career.

Recurring shoulder problems limited him to only 42 games in 2019.  In 723 PA since the start of the 2019 season, Polanco has hit only .203/.270/.364 with 24 home runs.  Between this dropoff and increasing annual salaries in the latter years of the extension, Polanco became something of an untradeable albatross as the Pirates entered another rebuilding phase.

Though Polanco is a veteran of eight MLB seasons, he still doesn’t turn 30 years old until September.  It stands to reason that another team will take a flier on Polanco to see if a change of scenery could get his career back on track, since that new team would only owe Polanco the prorated portion of the minimum salary (the Pirates would pay the rest of the money owed).

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.

More out of Pittsburgh:

• The organization is hopeful third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes will be ready to embark on a minor league rehab assignment within the next several days, general manager Ben Cherington said on 93.7 FM The Fan (h/t to Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). One of the sport’s top prospects and a popular preseason pick to win the NL Rookie of the Year Award, Hayes has been limited to seven plate appearances this season by a wrist injury. He isn’t eligible to return from the 60-day IL until June 3. The 24-year-old got off to an incredible start to his big league career last season, hitting .376/.442/.682 over his first 95 plate appearances.
• Cherington also noted that there’s some hope each of Colin Moran and Phillip Evans can return from the injured list without needing to embark on rehab assignments (via Gorman). Moran went down last week with a left groin injury, halting a strong .297/.352/.468 start to the year. Evans began the season blistering hot but quickly cooled off. He went on the shelf earlier this week with a hamstring strain.
• Corner outfielder Gregory Polanco and starter Mitch Keller will continue to get opportunities despite disappointing starts to the season, writes Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic. Coming off back-to-back down years, Polanco has managed just a .206/.284/.351 line over 109 plate appearances to start 2021. Those struggles make it highly unlikely the Pirates will wind up exercising their $12.5MM option on Polanco for next season, and it’s difficult to imagine the rebuilding club will find much of a market for him at the trade deadline. Nevertheless, Cherington pointed to Polanco’s somewhat promising batted ball metrics (including an 80th percentile hard hit rate) as reason for continuing to hope for a bounce back. Keller has been up and down over his first three MLB seasons, but it’s not particularly surprising the Pirates plan to give the 25-year-old time to work through his struggles given his prospect pedigree and mid-90’s velocity.

Polanco went on the COVID-related IL on May 4, and it was revealed a few days later that his placement came as a result of a violation of MLB’s health and safety protocols. Now that Polanco’s back, he’ll try to rebound from a subpar 90-plate appearance stretch in which he hit .200/.289/.350 with three home runs and four stolen bases.

Shreve, 30, joined the Pirates on a minor league contract last offseason after appearing in the majors in each year from 2014-20. The former Brave, Yankee, Cardinal and Met has thrown 228 2/3 innings with a respectable 3.74 ERA/3.70 SIERA and a 27.1 percent strikeout rate against an 11.5 percent walk rate. Along the way, Shreve has produced almost equal results against right-handed hitters (.228/.328/.422) and lefties (.227/.315/.434).

The Pirates selected Owen when they put Polanco on the IL, but he only totaled five plate appearances before his designation. The former 25th-round pick (2016) owns a .266/.341/.473 line with 55 home runs in 1,425 minor league plate appearances.

MAY 8: The Pirates placed Gregory Polanco on the COVID-related injury list on Tuesday, without any specific details (though none are required in COVID situations) given about why Polanco would be missing time.  However, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Polanco’s placement was due to a violation of healthy and safety protocols.  Polanco “utilized a training service that was outside of the Pirates’ bubble,” according to Mackey’s sources.

It isn’t yet known how long Polanco will be away from the team, or whether or not he’ll face league-mandated punishment for breaking protocol.  According to the 2021 Operations Manual, “Any Covered Individuals who are found to have violated the Code of Conduct are subject to potential discipline, including suspension or forfeiture of salary for days spent away from the Club while in mandatory self-isolation or quarantine resulting from the violation.”

In short, a suspension would cost Polanco some game checks (he is earning $11MM this season, as Pittsburgh’s highest-paid player) and it isn’t out of the question that he could also lose some money for the time he has currently missed on the COVID-IL.  It remains to be seen how the Pirates, the league, and possibly the MLBPA could approach this situation due to the lack of known information about the exact circumstances of Polanco’s violation.

Polanco tested positive for COVID-19 last July, costing him some time during the Pirates’ Summer Camp and delaying the start of his 2020 season by a few games.  Since undergoing shoulder surgery in September 2018, Polanco has hit .197/.263/.369 over 431 plate appearances, missing significant time in 2019 dealing with more shoulder problems.  Beyond the shoulder injury and the positive COVID test, Polanco also suffered a wrist fracture in December.

Gamel signed a minor-league contract with the Indians over the offseason and earned an Opening Day roster spot with a productive Spring Training. The 28-year-old couldn’t carry that over into the regular season, though, going just 1-17 with three walks and six strikeouts before Cleveland moved on. Tough start to 2021 notwithstanding, Gamel has been an acceptable role player for much of his MLB career. Also a former Yankee, Mariner and Brewer, the left-handed hitter has managed a .259/.330/.385 line (95 wRC+) over parts of six major league seasons.

The Pirates have cycled through a handful of outfielders in the season’s first month-plus. Dustin Fowler and Anthony Alford were quickly waived after terrible starts, and the Pirates are currently without Gregory Polanco due to a COVID-19 protocol violation. General manager Ben Cherington did say this afternoon on 93.7 The Fan that the Pirates expect Polanco back shortly (h/t to Mackey). Left fielder Bryan Reynolds is currently day-to-day with lower body soreness (via Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic), so Gamel will add some depth to a shortened outfield.

That outfield shuffling comes at the expense of Feliz, who joined the Pirates as part of the Gerrit Cole trade. The 27-year-old reliever has tossed 113 1/3 innings of 5.00 ERA ball since, mostly between 2018-19. Feliz has only allowed three runs (two earned) through 7 2/3 innings with quality strikeout and walk rates, but he’s been fortunate to not allow a home run despite a paltry 13.6% grounder rate. The Pirates have a week to trade Feliz or expose him to waivers, where his affordable $1MM salary could appeal to a rival club.

Polanco entered this season hoping to bounce back from two straight unproductive years, but it hasn’t happened yet. Dating back to 2019, Polanco has batted an unsightly .197/.263/.369 over 431 trips to the plate, including 90 PA of .200/.289/.350 hitting this season. Phillip Evans could handle most of the work in right field during Polanco’s absence.

This is the first big league promotion for Owen, a 25th-round pick in 2016 who worked his way to the Triple-A level in 2019. Owen struggled during his debut there, but he has performed well in the minors overall. The 27-year-old owns a .266/.341/.473 line with 55 home runs in 1,425 PA.

Polanco had made 87 plate appearances in the Dominican winter league with a .197/.276/.342 batting line. It’s not a great showing for Polanco, nor is it an overwhelming sample size. Still, Polanco is coming off a pair of rough seasons in 2019 and 2020 in which he finished with -0.6 bWAR and -1.0 bWAR, respectively.

Polanco posted a measly .153/.214/.325 line in 174 plate appearances across 50 games in 2020. He tested positive for coronavirus in mid-July. As if that wasn’t enough, Polanco’s 2019 had been cut short to just 42 games because of hamstring and shoulder issues. Polanco underwent shoulder surgery in September of 2019, ending his season with a .242/.301/.425 slash line.  The 29-year-old is one of Pittsburgh’s longest-tenured players, having made his Major League debut with the club back in 2014.

Sugano and Arihara are quite likely to each land multi-year deals but perhaps not overly long commitments, which could appeal to a Padres team Lin says is “mulling one-year deals as a way to reinforce a rotation.”  The Padres will be without Mike Clevinger in 2021 due to Tommy John surgery, leaving a vacancy in the starting mix.

Some more from around baseball…

• Jason Varitek officially joined the Red Sox coaching staff earlier this month, working in the new position of game planning coordinator.  This is Varitek’s first assignment as a full-time MLB coach, and the longtime former catcher tells Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that eventually managing a team is “the ultimate goal” down the road in his post-playing career.  Varitek has worked as a special assistant within the Boston front office since 2012, a post that has allowed him to dabble in several different organizational facets such as scouting, player development, and (most recently) working with Red Sox catchers throughout the 2020 season.  “There are no set parameters” to the game planning coordinator job, Varitek said: “I’ll work with the catchers and pitchers and be a liaison with the analytics people.  Whatever comes my way, I’ll help out.  It ends up being the same thing I have been doing, helping the players grow.”
• The Pirates are known to be considering all options on the trade front this winter, though The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel (subscription required) doesn’t think Josh Bell or Gregory Polanco will be dealt since the Bucs would likely be selling low on either player.  “It’s more likely than not” that Joe Musgrove will be traded, though Biertempfel also thinks it’s possible Musgrove could be signed to a contract extension, with Pittsburgh either seeing him as a long-term piece or perhaps using the extension as a way of enhancing Musgrove’s trade value.

Polanco had been sidelined by COVID-19. Thankfully, it seems he has recovered and is back to full health.

The Bucs will be glad to see the outfielder back in action. He has looked at times like a potential star but struggled quite a bit while battling injuries in 2019. Polanco is owed $11MM next year with successive club options thereafter.

No specific timeline was given for when Polanco might return, after missing roughly two weeks of training and on-field action.  “As soon as we feel or deem his body is ready to come back, then he will be able to come back, assessment-wise,” Shelton said.  “We’re going to make sure that he’s in a position where his body is deemed healthy.”

2018 seemed like a breakout campaign for the outfielder, though the shoulder surgery that Polanco underwent late that season ended up being a lingering problem throughout 2019.  Polanco played in only 42 games and hit a lackluster .242/.301/.425 over 167 plate appearances.

Assuming he can come back with a healthy shoulder and in anything close to his 2018 form, Polanco will provide a big boost to Pittsburgh’s outfield.  Polanco is slated to eventually take over in right field, with he and Bryan Reynolds flanking the center field platoon of Jarrod Dyson and Guillermo Heredia.