Polanco emerging as leader, All-Star in Minnesota
By Pat Borzi
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins were in Miami for an interleague series in late July when Jorge Polanco, their All-Star shortstop, met the great Tony Fernández, his Dominican countryman and a four-time All-Star at the position.
Polanco and Fernandez, who won four consecutive Gold Gloves with Toronto, had a lot in common, starting with their hometown.
Both hail from San Pedro de Macoris, the city of about 195,000 known as the cradle of shortstops. Both switch-hit. And since spring training, when Twins third base and infield coach Tony Diaz showed Polanco video after video of Fernandez in the field, Polanco adopted the same sidearm throwing motion Fernandez relied on.
This was Polanco’s first opportunity to quiz him about it.
“I asked him why (he threw sidearm),” Polanco said. “He said to me, `That’s an easy throw, a shorter throw. You’ve just got to move your feet. The key to making that throw is moving your feet and keep the throw short.’
Polanco signed with the Twins as a 16-year-old and shuttled between second base and shortstop in the minors, throwing his natural sidearm from second and overhand from short — the latter, he said, for more velocity. But his throws from short were erratic. This spring Diaz, new to the Twins staff, suggested Polanco make every throw sidearm to improve his accuracy. Adopting that helped the hard-working Polanco continue his steady defensive improvement.
This season, for the first time since winning the starting job in 2017, Polanco’s fielding percentage of .970 exceeds the league average at his position (.969). His ratio of one error every 9.3 games represents a significant bump over his last two seasons.
“There are a lot of players who are reluctant to change because change can be intimidating,” Diaz said. “He was all ears. I give him all the credit.”
That, and Polanco’s hitting, drew notice from All-Star voters, who chose him the American League starter. Polanco hit for the cycle April 5 in Philadelphia and spent most of the season among the A.L.’s top 10 batters.
His average remained above .300 for four months before falling to .295 in early August. Through Sunday he still ranked among the MLB top 10 in hits (138) and doubles (31), and his 17 homers and 56 RBI put him among the game’s most productive hitting shortstops. Per FanGraphs.com, his career high 40.9% rate of hard contact — nearly nine percentage points higher than last year — ranks ninth among shortstops
“He does some pretty unique things with the bat from both sides of the plate,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We see him, even left-handed, do the little magic wand thing where he’s running out of the box. He kind of slows his hands down, just kind of waves at the ball. He has a lot of little tricks. He’s a really talented guy.”
Shortstop stability has been elusive for the Twins since Cristian Guzmán left as a free agent in 2004. Eleven shortstops started the last 15 Opening Days, none back-to-back. Highly-regarded prospects Brian Dozier and Trevor Plouffe failed there before establishing themselves elsewhere in the infield.
The best shortstops currently in the Twins system, Royce Lewis and Wander Javier, are likely two years away. Last February the Twins showed their faith in Polanco with a five-year, $25.75 million contract extension, plus two options. It came barely a year after Polanco tested positive for Stanozolol, a steroid, and drew an 80-game suspension; Polanco took a tainted supplement. The time away allowed Polanco to think about what he lost.
“I learned a lot, especially don’t take any opportunity for granted,” he said. “When you have it there, you just want to keep it. Being away from the game that long, I think it got my mind right. It made me more focused on the game. I became a better person and a better player because of it.”
Twins DH Nelson Cruz knows what Polanco went through; in 2013 he accepted a 50-game suspension in the Biogenesis scandal.
“He’s been a better player after that,” he said. “I can talk from experience. Sometimes when you hit the bottom, you know yourself better and you know what is important. Something changes inside of you, and the best comes out.
“There’s a lot of stuff, but the personal one, the drive to prove people wrong, can also inspire you to do better. Either way, you either go down and feel sorry for yourself, or stand up and do what you’re supposed to do, play your game. Once something that you lost, like the game, is taken away from you, you appreciate it, and you hold onto it as tight as you can.”
To do that, Polanco maintains a rigid routine. Every day he takes ground balls on his knees, training his hands to stay low and his eyes to focus on every hop. In the indoor cage he hits off a tee and then a pitching machine before heading out for batting practice.
A few times a week, Diaz hits ground balls to Twins infielders before batting practice. A recent session ended with Diaz tapping one that Polanco charged and threw to first across his body. Left fielder Eddie Rosario was out taking grounders with Polanco and decided to give it a go. Rosario fielded the ball but got nothing on the throw, which hugged the grass the last 20 feet. Not as easy as the sidearming Polanco makes it look.
“When you have that kind of commitment to the routine and that process, with the talent level he’s got, you’re going to have good results,” Diaz said. “That’s all the work he puts in behind the scenes. And he does it very consistently.”
Featured Image: Brace Hemmelgarn / Getty Images Sport