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    Jorge Polanco: I'm Really Sorry


    Seth Stohs

    FORT MYERS - On Monday morning, Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco met with Twins media following news that broke on Sunday night that he had been suspended by Major League Baseball for 80 games for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy.

    Polanco did not address the specifics of his situation, but wanted the focus of his comments to be an apology to the organization, his teammates, fans and his home country of the Dominican Republic.

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    Jorge Polanco began his comments by making an apology. "I’m here to say that I’m really sorry to be in this situation. I wanted to apologize to the entire Twins organization, my fans, my family and my country the Dominican Republic."

    Polanco said that he learned about the failed drug test "a month ago." On Sunday, he reached out to Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey and manager Paul Molitor.

    According to Falvey, it was completely ironic that the Twins signed veteran shortstop Erick Aybar on February 23rd, four days shy of a month ago. "Aybar was something that was in the mix already."

    Only recently Polanco decided to drop his appeal, a decision that was not easy for him. "It was very difficult to drop the appeal, but out of respect to the organization, I did it. I just want to move forward."

    Falvey noted that Polanco requested a meeting with him and manager Paul Molitor to own up to the situation.

    "It's obviously disappointing. We all know Jorge. He's a good kid. He made a mistake. He owned it. He wanted to tell us. He wanted to be the person to break that news to us. He didn't want it to come from his agent or anything else. He asked for that."

    He will not be able to rejoin the Twins on the field until the end of June, Polanco will stay in Ft. Myers throughout the suspension.

    Polanco said, "I’m going to stay in Ft. Myers. I’m going to keep preparing for when I can come back this season and help the Minnesota Twins."

    While he did not want to go into too many details, Polanco noted that he is fully aware of how the Stanozolol got into his system. (according to his statement, he requested a vitamin B12 and an iron supplement.)

    "Yes, I know how everything happened. I won’t go into details. Today’s not the day to discuss those things. Today’s the day for me to be here in front of you guys and the Twins organization and my fans and just apologize."

    Polanco was joined by his agent, Ulises Cabrera from Octagon agency. After Polanco spoke, Cabrera discussed his client.

    "You guys know Jorge really well. I would imagine you would consider Jorge one of the better guys, and one of the more educated guys, and one of the most respectful guys."

    He continued discussing how Polanco feels about this situation, "It's been difficult for him. He feels a tremendous responsibility to the organization. He loves the Twins organization. They're the team that has believed in him since Day 1, so it’s a very difficult situation to deal with For a 24-year-old to be able to handle himself as he has is impressive. I think it’s consistent with who he is as a person."

    The specifics of his return are not known, but Cabrera said that Polanco will continue to work to be ready to help the Twins when he gets back. "The immediate plan is for (Jorge) to continue to work out and make sure he’s in baseball shape so when his opportunity comes, he’s ready to go and contribute to the greatest extent possible to the team in the back half of the season."

    The hope is that when Polanco returns, he can take off right away the way he did over the final two months of the 2017 season. Unfortunately, along with the suspension, he will be ineligible for the Twins if they do make a playoff run.

    Falvey provided some more detail to what Polanco can do while suspended. "When we break camp, he'll stay here in extended. He can play in those extended spring training games. He can work out, and then as we get closer, he'll go on a normal position player rehab assignment."

    A "normal" position player rehab assignment is 20 games.

    Falvey noted that the organization will continue to support him. "You think of a baseball team like a family. Family members make mistakes. Now it's the opportunity to support him going forward, and there's every expectation he'll work his tail of to be ready when that 81st game of the season comes."

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    I believe the truth lies some where in the middle of both sides of this argument. IT begins with highly competitive competition of getting major league roster spot and the cultural back ground of the player. Polanco went through a difficult season where he was almost out of baseball to where he made big comeback as player. Some may say he was using then but I believe that not to be case because the Twins were in the playoffs so I am betting they were being tested significantly late last year. I think it was more off season use of the drug. Polanco used local trainer that was having success and he wanting to improve himself believed the trainer or chose not to question the trainer to get ready for the season. Also I willing speculate he thought he would end it soon enough where he would be clean by beginning of spring training. But I willing to bet they tested him earlier than ever because of being in the playoffs and based on last years performance. I also think drug thing is more common in the culture he grew up because there your fighting to make out to the big time improve your life and your family situation there. I do believe him he thought he was just getting vitamins and supplements to build himself up to compete this year and he used trainer that probably had track record of getting good results. The Trainer here we do not know all of his motives but I am sure he was trying to get most performance out of Polonco to do this he may have been willing to use drugs with idea they would stop soon enough to not get caught. 

    I think the Twins if they are going to get handle on this is they are going to have set up training facilities and trainers in these countries so when these players go home they don't get caught up with unethical training procedures. Because these players are going go home you can't expect them to live near Twins facilities in US  and finding proven trainers that Twins approve to come to these players in their counties. For majority of these players they are major league minimum or minor league salaries which is better than average person wages but not is not life changing money. The gross pay looks good but there are a lot of things that come out pay like Agents commissions, Taxes from many different locals, Financial people to handle this accounting for you, maintaining several different living locations through the year and you see money starts to disappear quickly especially for young player. 

    I believe the truth lies some where in the middle of both sides of this argument. IT begins with highly competitive competition of getting major league roster spot and the cultural back ground of the player. Polanco went through a difficult season where he was almost out of baseball to where he made big comeback as player. Some may say he was using then but I believe that not to be case because the Twins were in the playoffs so I am betting they were being tested significantly late last year. I think it was more off season use of the drug. Polanco used local trainer that was having success and he wanting to improve himself believed the trainer or chose not to question the trainer to get ready for the season. Also I willing speculate he thought he would end it soon enough where he would be clean by beginning of spring training. But I willing to bet they tested him earlier than ever because of being in the playoffs and based on last years performance. I also think drug thing is more common in the culture he grew up because there your fighting to make out to the big time improve your life and your family situation there. I do believe him he thought he was just getting vitamins and supplements to build himself up to compete this year and he used trainer that probably had track record of getting good results. The Trainer here we do not know all of his motives but I am sure he was trying to get most performance out of Polonco to do this he may have been willing to use drugs with idea they would stop soon enough to not get caught.

    I think the Twins if they are going to get handle on this is they are going to have set up training facilities and trainers in these countries so when these players go home they don't get caught up with unethical training procedures. Because these players are going go home you can't expect them to live near Twins facilities in US and finding proven trainers that Twins approve to come to these players in their counties. For majority of these players they are major league minimum or minor league salaries which is better than average person wages but not is not life changing money. The gross pay looks good but there are a lot of things that come out pay like Agents commissions, Taxes from many different locals, Financial people to handle this accounting for you, maintaining several different living locations through the year and you see money starts to disappear quickly especially for young player.

    The testing is random. It has no bearing on how the team is performing or performed the year before.




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