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I doubt they're trying to get 30hrs out of him. Probably more like 10hr rather than 0-2. Also, of course we need more guys with .400+ OBP, but that is very rare. There were 6 players in the MLB that achieved that in 2022 (none of them were on the Twins). Arraez lead the team in OBP at .375 with Correa coming in .366.

Underrated? Not by true fans. Underpaid? Sadly yes.

I truly hope he is not coming to the end of his Twins career. Polanco is along the same lines as Cuddyer: good to very good, but not great. He should still have a few good years in the tank. It would be nice to see him finish his career here, but he will probably be priced out of the Twins range in the future.

That first pic looks like a more open stance and with the bat close that looks like a good short to the ball all fields approach to my amateur eye. The second looks just a little more closed but not that much different to me. I can't say I have ever seen the stance in the third picture. It almost looks like he is cocking that foot back to make sure his hips gain some whip and the bat is further back so it seems like that would be more geared toward more power but again I am not a professional so just my personal questioning observations. Maybe we will see more power out of Martin in the future but to this point he has been more of an all fields slap hitter with a good eye at the plate. He hasn't cracked .400 slugging in full season ball yet but a power breakout would be nice. Still I am fine if he gets on base at his fairly normal .400 clip as well. We have seen how valuable that can be as well.

That is a relief. All systems go for the 3-4 defense.

I believe I've read it in the Athletic but even though I've subscribed I can't get access to these old Athletic articles, I'm sorry I can't come up with any info. Here is an article which had some videos of him having success in AFL where he resorted back to the high leg kick https://www.mlb.com/news/royce-lewis-arizona-fall-league-homer-great-catch What I've read or maybe heard from an interview that he changed his swing to the toe-tap swing because his old swing was hurting his knee. He developed that swing during the off season while recuperating. I have no idea if the Twin staff suggested it or he came up with it all by himself. Either way that's the swing that he wanted to experiment with and it worked.

Every MLB team has underappreciated players during their tenure with the club. One Twins player is nearing the end of his time with the club, and fans may not have fully appreciated what he has accomplished in recent years. Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports MLB teams need players to fit different roles on the roster, from the big bat off the bench to a fireman reliever out of the bullpen. Jorge Polanco is entering his tenth big-league season, and he has quietly become one of Minnesota’s most consistent presences in the line-up. Multiple traits make Polanco underrated as he has developed into one of baseball’s best second basemen before entering his age-29 season. Minnesota originally signed Polanco as a teenager out of the Dominican Republic in a strong signing class that included Max Kepler and Miguel Sano. Kepler and Polanco agreed to contract extensions leading into the 2019 season to add to their years of team control. He signed what turned out to be a very team-friendly deal for five years and $25.75 million. There is a vesting option for 2024 ($10.5 million) if he reaches 550 PA in 2023. Minnesota also holds a $12 million team option for 2025, with escalators based on All-Star Games, Silver Sluggers, and Gold Gloves. He’s earned over $18.3 million in his career, but his value to the Twins has been much higher than his earnings. Polanco has outperformed his contract nearly every season since becoming a big-league regular. He was limited to 104 games last season, and FanGraphs pegs his value at $14.6 million. His best season was the 2021 campaign when he provided 4.2 WAR, which equals $33.4 million in value. In 2019, he was the AL’s starting shortstop in the All-Star Game, and he was worth $26.2 million. Overall, he has been worth 13.9 WAR and $111.3 million. Every winter, MLB Network ranks the top players at each position. Polanco improved by one spot in the rankings, moving from seventh to sixth overall. Fans did not think as highly of Polanco as he didn’t make the top-10 fan list from MLB Network, with players like Ozzie Albies and Jazz Chisholm Jr. jumping over him into the list. Polanco isn’t a household name, so it’s easy to see why he might be forgotten about in fan voting. Among AL second basemen, Polanco has the third-highest WAR over the last two seasons behind Jose Altuve and Marcus Semien. He ranks sixth among all second basemen in the same period. Altuve is the only second baseman with a higher wRC+ over the last two years. Last season, he ranked in the 70th percentile or higher in xwOBA, Barrel %, xSLG, Chase Rate, and Sprint Speed. His best category was BB%, as he ranked in the 98th percentile after drawing a career-high 64 walks. He is clearly among baseball’s best second basemen in many offensive categories. Defensively, Polanco struggled in 2022, but a knee injury might have impacted his defensive value. Only three AL second basemen ranked lower than Polanco according to SABR’s Defensive Index. Baseball Savant ranked him in the 14th percentile for Outs Above Average and in the 25th percentile for Arm Strength. It will also be interesting to see how MLB’s shift rules impact his defensive value. Defensive metrics have been hard to trust the past couple of seasons, with the second baseman regularly standing in shallow right field. His ankle and knee issues may have slowed him down, which might impact his defensive value without being able to play on the grass. Polanco missed the last month of the season after a knee injury, but the team is reporting that he should be ready for spring training later this month. Minnesota also has multiple top prospects behind Polanco on the second base depth chart. Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, Edouard Julien , and Austin Martin look to impact the roster in 2023, and second base might be their path to playing time. If Polanco’s injuries reemerge, the Twins might turn the position over to a younger player. Since the start of 2019, only Byron Buxton has provided more value to the Twins than Jorge Polanco. Some fans might have yet to fully appreciate that value, which is one of the biggest reasons he is underrated. Do you feel Polanco is an underrated player? Is he the most underrated player on the Twins roster? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. View full article

I think their MLB decisions have been less than stellar, and they should acknowledge that. I think their development decisions have actually been quite good, but that's where the luck has killed them. If Canterino were fronting this rotation, and Lewis and Kirilloff were penciled into the middle of the order I'd think the narrative on the FO would be very different. Those are 3 hard luck examples where it looks like they got it right with those guys, but the baseball gods had different ideas about their bodies holding up. But the decisions made at the MLB level have looked much worse. The pitching decisions especially. Pagan standing out right now. I don't know what a realistic statement from a FO about such things is, though. "Things didn't work out as we'd planned, and we'll adjust things to hopefully make better decisions in the future" sounds about as realistic as possible. What else are they supposed to say?

I imagine he'll be optioned to start 2024 when he returns from Tommy John. He's only pitched a few games above class A ball.

Does Kep flat out refuse to even attempt to go the the left side, even bunt, or is he simply incapable of doing it??? A few bunts up the third base line with the third baseman by second would a stopped the overload to right.

Loved all the praised tributes the players gave to Mike ... The best was Josh Rabe with Mike telling him it was the general manager calling the shots and you better listen ....

That seems about right. Gordon should definitely hit before Kepler.

Yeah, I don't agree. Have to give Miranda and AK a chance at the MLB level this year.

This will provide useful when I move back to Mpls and am actually a frequent attendee of games at TF!

I wouldn't want both Kepler and Gallo in the lineup on the same day. An opponents starting pitcher would love to see them together in the lineup. One a strikeout and the other a grounder to second. lineup Polanco 2b, Correa ss, Kirilloff 1b, Buxton cf, Miranda 3b, Larnach lf, Vazquez c, Gallo rf, Gordon dh

It means our outfield options are better than our 3B options so we chose, say, Larnach in LF and Gallo at 1b rather than Farmer at 3b and Miranda at 1b. Depends on who has stepped up and who broke down.

The explanation on the MLB site made sense. Lots of travel, and generally bouncing around, to and from ST, WBC, home for paternity leave, back to WBC that he wouldn't have the time to build himself up to where he needs to be before entering into the championship round of the WBC and be trying to go full speed. Basically his ST will be cut short/interrupted too much with the birth of his baby that it wouldn't make sense for him to try to go all out in early/mid-March.

Yes I've heard or read tgar somewhere ,,, he definitely is like arreaz and has the love of the game and would play anywhere you asked him ... I feel the pain and would also not like to lose him to a career injury ... Lewis will bring alot to this game and maybe will be a fan favorite over Buxton and Correa , we need that after trading arreaz ...

@Nashvilletwin I think winning gets butts in seats more than losing with style, but losing with style is better than losing ugly. Last year was ugly with a Capital Punishment U, and this is a new year with new possibilities. If we're winning then Rocco is going to do Rocco things, but if things fall apart I do believe they'll sell vets and go young. They have a lot of guys in the last year of their deal and could move many if the sun sets by July 20.

I'm curious about Lewis being mentioned here. Are there reports that Lewis changed his swing without the help of Twins staff? I know there were plenty of reports about Buxton finally saying "f it" in the offseason and going back to his old HS swing, but Lewis had a big leg kick in HS that the Twins actually didn't mess with early. Weren't the reports that Lewis was putting in a ton of work with the Twins staff at the alternate site in 2020 and that's where those swing changes came from? And he did all his rehab at the Twins facility so I'd think Twins staff had a hand in the toe-tap swing changes we saw last year. But it is entirely possible that I just missed some reports about him doing things his own way so I'm curious if you have some info on that.

I'd need to review the research you cite here, but even assuming its accurate, my sample FO statement isn't an apology. It's an assessment of their development that more accurately matches reality. Followed by a clear statement of what was learned or what will be done differently. That, to me, is what's missing. I get the impression from their statements/interviews that this FO still thinks they're the smartest guys in the room but just with dismal luck. Luck may not love the Twins these days, true, but so many of their decisions about personnel are worth questioning.

Lewis usually says yeah put me anywhere, I want to play. When Lewis said he prefer to play the INF, Lewis hates to say no, IMO that's him saying indirectly that he doesn't want to play the OF.

Definitely agree the AFL picture is a very different stance. Now, obviously much more goes into his swing mechanics, etc. than his stance, but I'm not going to take the time to breakdown video and send snippets of them from different times of his career. But when it comes to the talk of the Twins tinkering with his swing, it looks to me like his AFL swing that produced the desired results was not the same as his Vandy swing so it could be argued that the Twins actually did fix him in some way. I think his wrist feeling better would also be a big part of it, though. I remember Keith Law being really concerned about him going into last season because he'd gotten so passive and his swing got so "slappy" (due to a number of mechanical concerns) that he didn't know that he'd ever be able to hit the ball with real authority, and he thought his wrist injury had lead him down that path. Perhaps once the wrist was feeling better he took time during his late season missed game situation to make a few adjustments and that's what we saw in the AFL. No idea if those were changes the Twins pushed for or he just did it on his own, though. I also can not confirm nor deny the hair being the cause of all his struggles 😄

I'm just ticked off that now I keep trying to see my nose when I look forward.