Much of the recent narrative around the Twins has been focused on the rest and recovery plan for Byron Buxton and the demotion of Royce Lewis as Carlos Correa has returned to health.
In praise of Jorge Polanco, the Twins' most productive everyday player
Polanco has been a fixture in the lineup since 2019. With rest and recovery part of the discussion these days, Polanco's durability stands out.
May 19, 2022 at 3:56PM
The Buxton quest for 100 good games is an interesting discussion point, as he has reached that benchmark just once in his career and that was way back in 2017. Correa, it should be noted, has managed to play more than 110 games just once in the last four full years — and that was last season when he appeared in 148 heading into free agency.
The Twins have already been besieged by a multitude of other injuries, from Miguel Sano to Alex Kirilloff to Trevor Larnach to much of the starting rotation.
Their part-time players have contributed plenty this year, with Buxton leading the way. But let's take a moment to appreciate the one player Rocco Baldelli has been able to almost write in pen every day since 2019: Jorge Polanco.
He's played 37 of 38 games this year, leading the way on a division-leading team.
Last year, he played 152 games. Nobody else on the team played in more than 135. He played 55 of 60 during the pandemic season (second behind Eddie Rosario) and played 153 for the Bomba Squad in 2019 when nobody else played more than 137.
That's 397 out of a possible 422 games for Polanco (94%) since the start of 2019, almost all of it coming while playing a demanding middle infield position. He has 63 home runs, a .275 batting average and an .801 OPS in those 397 games — very good, though not eye-popping numbers.
But that's Polanco. The guy you almost forget about because he's always there. He had a slow start this year, but with a more productive stretch this month he's taken over the team lead in RBI (22), hits (32) and walks (21).
Polanco is not the team's most valuable player. That's Buxton by a long shot. He's not their most high-profile infielder. That's Correa.
But for the last three-plus seasons, he has been by far the Twins' MAP: Most Available Player.
In this era, and particularly for these Twins, that's something to celebrate.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
