Pittsburgh Pirates Offense: What will Gregory Polanco Provide

The Pittsburgh Pirates saw the 2019 season slip away from them but also saw a key player essentially lose all of 20219 as well.  Now that the outfielder is back, what can he provide in 2020?

If the Pittsburgh Pirates want to have more success this year they need to get more production out of the middle of their lineup.  Last year the team saw Josh Bell take a stride forward in terms of being a legitimate power threat.  However, as the season went on, opposing teams started to pitch around Bell.  He started to struggle and saw his 45+ home run pace slow.

The issue was only partially Bell’s fault.  He was the team’s cleanup hitter and looked to do damage every at-bat.  Instead, pitchers refused to throw him consistent pitches in the zone which took Bell a while to adjust too.

This was mainly because the team did not have any other impact hitters behind him in the lineup.  The team lacked the “protection” they needed to force teams to not be able to be so careful when Bell was at the plate.  Most of the season, third baseman Colin Moran batted fifth, who had a decent season but did not provide the threat of instant offense.

Gregory Polanco could be the bat that the Pittsburgh Pirates need behind Josh Bell.  Polanco was expected to be a big part of the team’s offense after coming off one of the best seasons of his career.  In 2018, Gregory Polanco seemed to really make strides at the plate and put together one of the best second halves in baseball.

Overall, Polanco batted just .254 for the season, but did set a career-high in on-base percentage and slugging at .340 and .499 respectively.  Furthermore, the left-handed hitting outfielder set a career-high in home runs (23) and extra-base hits (61).

As mentioned earlier, Polanco’s second half was even more impressive.  Polanco’s batting average through May was only .213 and his OPS was under .750; it really looked like he was officially a bust.  However, the coaching staff finally worked with him and figured out that he was too close to the plate, which was stopping him from getting his hands extended and hitting inside pitches.  Once they backed him off the plate, things improved drastically.  Over the final four months of the season, Polanco batted a strong .281 with an OPS of .905.

Unfortunately, Polanco’s season was cut short due to a tear in his labrum.  When he came back last season he only appeared in 42 games before being shut down for the remainder of the season.  Ultimately, the team rushed him back too quickly.  It was obvious that Polanco was playing with limitations.  He struggled to find consistency with his swing and could hardly throw a ball in from the outfield.

This year Polanco’s shoulder is 100 percent healthy and did not have any restrictions entering Spring Training.  He’s off to a strong spring, batting .333/.500/.667 in eight games so far.  Polanco needs to continue and work this spring to get ready for the 2020 season.  If he can come close to producing the way he did in the final four months of 2018, then the Bucs and Josh Bell will have some middle of the order protection.