Jorge Polanco At SS Could Be Disastrous

This is like the third article in a row I feel you are trolling points I make to turn into articles Nick.

I demand co-authorship credit........

(And good article!)

"Disastrous"?  For an 103 L team to try to see whether Polanco can improve at SS with continuous play?  Nope.  Necessary.   Signing a FA SS would have been akin to keeping Plouffe and blocking Sano.   These guys need to play consistently in a position.  Too young to do otherwise.

The FO duo may have needed some time, but we hired experienced people and they had an opportunity for some evening reading to get ready for their new job.  I cannot judge how good they will be because so far I have not had anything to indicate trends, errors, or good decisions.  Unlike most I am not enamored with Castro.  I am fine, we need a catcher and I am glad he is better defensively than Suzuki, but so far he brings us to 100 instead of 103 losses.  Hughes and Perkins and Gibson come back with another level of competence and we are at 93 losses.  The no-names we added to the team through rule 5 and FA signings have to shine in a shocking way and suddenly we are only a 91 loss team.  After the last six years this is not enough.  Remember we had to have a new stadium to compete.  The state did their part now its time for the Twins to step up and do theirs.

Cutting Polanco loose, or making him a Super utility player, isn't the answer. Taking reps from Sano at third? The outfield? Obviously SS? And Dozier sits how many games? Polanco appears to be a very good offensive player who can likely play second base. Putting him anywhere else negates his offense. What's troubling, so far, is no lessons appear to have been learned by management. Key word "appeared". They look to be sitting on a unneeded asset. And they appear to be using offense to evaluate a defensive position, while knowing they have a manager who seems to value such a view. Since they can't change managers, they should have changed the roster. (Yes I know that's drastic) The whole situation, and the continuing roster imbalance continue, even as spring training gets closer. While I am patient, and have faith in the core of this roster, the lack of fine tuning and tweaking necessary to move past a -103 team, is disheartening.

I'm not going to comment on everything but didn't the Twins kind of hire a baseball guy to sit in the dugout and manage Molitor?  I know it wasn't expressed that way but I thought Falvey/Lavine put a coach in the dugout.  Perhaps I'm misremembering.

As for Polanco, he's blocked by Dozier.  So you either bench him or play him at short or trade one of him or Dozier.  I think the FO's plan was to trade Dozier but it doesn't seem likely to happen.  So they'll probably run with him for now.  In two months maybe he slides over to third, Sano to fulltime DH and Escobar to short.  

No matter what, if he and Dozier are here, Polanco should play SS for half a year, to see what happens, imo. They aren't making the playoffs, if they can't manage to, you know, actually trade older players for younger players, they need to see what they have.

They did that last year. It went about as you would expect. He was terrible. There is minimal reason to believe he's going to improve significantly at SS, especially when he spends his entire offseason playing a different position. Blocking Polanco at short would not be akin to blocking Sano at 3B because SS is not his long-term position.

They did not do that last year.  They made Polanco start the season at 2B in AAA, moved him to the majors and had him start only 45 games at  SS.  He needs to come to ST with the SS mind set and play 100+ games in the position.  Cannot toss him all over the place and ask him to improve.  He deserves at least the chances that Koskie, Morneau, and Plouffe got when they came up as atrocious but young defenders...

I still hope Dozier is traded, but I'm not going to panic if Polanco has to start at SS. Most people seem OK giving Sano another shot at 3B despite poor results; it seems as though most feel he was put in a terrible spot being moved back there after not playing the position for over a year. Polanco was in the same boat, for some reason Mike Quade wasn't playing him at SS in Rochester. Polanco might not have been Quade's preferred SS but it's beyond inexcusable that the front office didn't dictate that he get reps there.

 

But if Dozier isn't traded, and Polanco can't play the position, I'm just fine with Escobar getting the job back. Last year was the first in three that he wasn't an offensive asset. I certainly like his chances at a rebound more than any free agent. It looks like Erick Aybar is the best available free agent, and he can't hit.

Agreed on the playing SS part. It's like there was no long, or even short term, plan for how Dozier and Polanco are on the same roster. I really don't get the planning at all, frankly.

1.) Any blame to Molitor for writing Polanco in at short is misguided. The Twins season was over pretty quickly and the FO wanted to see Polanco play everyday. Since they weren't going to rest Dozier as he pursued a HR record (and built his trade value), that meant SS. Molitor was just following orders as best as he could.

 

2.) I think any assumption that Dozier will be with the Twins is way premature. Trades are all different and it still makes way too much sense for the Dodgers to trade for Dozier. They have a big hole and other options are not amazing: the free agents are lackluster options highlighted by Stephen Drew; Ian Kinsler is old and may have a similarly high cost since the Tigers are not rebuilding (plus he has a no trade clause); and other trade targets don't solve the Dodgers problems as neatly as Dozier (and again cost prospects as well). The Twins and Dodgers weren't miles apart and it makes too much sense for the team to compromise in March and find some middle ground.

I think the bolded part is certainly subject for debate.  

I think that last part about looking elsewhere and making moves later is illuminating. The Dodgers have the luxury to look around since no one else is sniffing at Dozier all that hard. I just think they're going to look around and come back to Dozier later in the winter. When the #1 option is Kinsler, #2 is Forsythe and #3 might be Jurickson Profar, Dozier is going to seem a lot nicer.

This is an important observation in my view.  I want Dozier traded as much as anyone, but I respect the new braintrusts ability to walk away and allow the Dodgers to sniff around.  They know the market as well as the Dodgers do.  In the end, they're confident that Dodgers will see the light and come back and hopefully sweeten the pot a bit.  In the meantime, Twins fans are here stewing about what to do with a roster log jam that wasn't dealt with.  We are still about 3 weeks out before pitchers and catchers report, so there is still time to wheel and deal.  

More on topic, as long as Polanco is playing every day, I'll be somewhat happy.  He needs to play, but assuming SS or a utility role is temporary, I can live with a little chaos and uncertainty.  It's if we're still talking about this in July that I'll be bothered by it.  Unfortunately, I believe if Dozier isn't dealt before Spring Training, talking about this in July is exactly what we'll be doing.  I'm still a bit concerned about the two remaining log jams on the right side of the infield.  I think those impact more than the 25 man roster.