Projecting the Pittsburgh Pirates Opening Day Lineup

Right Field

If you look up the definition of inconsistency in the dictionary, Gregory Polanco’s picture is right beside it. Sometimes, Polanco will go on month-long streaks where he looks like the player we all expected him to be. Other times, he looks completely lost at the plate.

Polanco seemed to put it all together in 2018 when he hit .254/.340/.499 with 23 homers, 32 doubles and a dozen stolen bases in 535 plate appearances. He also had a 128 OPS+ and 123 wRC+. Polanco really hit his stride June onward when he hit .281/.354/.547 with 15 long balls in 81 games/318 plate appearances. He also wasn’t awful defensively with -3 DRS, but +1.5 arm runs above average.

But a hard slide took him out of most of September 2018, and most of the 2019 season as a whole. It’s clear that he wasn’t fully healthy in 2019 as he sporadically played 42 games throughout the season and put up a .726 OPS and 90 OPS+ in 167 plate appearances.

If his Spring Training is any indication, Polanco is back to full health. In the 27 plate appearances he got before training was ended, Polanco had 8 hits, half of which went for extra bases (one home run, three doubles), and walked six times to oppose seven strikeouts. Hopefully, the injury didn’t set back the outfielder too much, as he will open the year as the Pirates primary right fielder.