Souhan: Jorge Polanco bests Louie Varland as ex-Twins go head-to-head in ALCS

The year: 2014.

The context: The Twins were enduring their fourth straight losing season.

The assignment: Check out José Berrios, a rising star in the Twins farm system who was pitching for Class A Fort Myers.

That Fort Myers team also featured Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler.

Berrios pitched well when I saw him, but a lesser prospect caught my eye.

I kept asking Twins officials about Jorge Polanco, a skinny kid playing shortstop. The typical answer: “We don’t know what position he’s going to play, but he can hit.”

More than a decade later, Polanco is the star of the 2025 baseball postseason.

Three game-winning hits in three consecutive postseason games, and the first provided a reminder of how often baseball history is serendipitous.

Polanco’s game-winner against Detroit was the first walk-off hit to end an ALDS since … the Mariners defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 in 1995 on Edgar Martinez’s double down the left-field line, which scored Ken Griffey Jr. from first, at the old Kingdome in Seattle. (I was lucky to be there for that.)

Polanco’s latest pivotal hit came against Toronto reliever Louie Varland, a native Minnesotan and former Twin who has given up three home runs this postseason.

On the first, he became the victim of one of the greatest swings in baseball history.

In the first round of the playoffs, Varland threw a fastball more than a foot inside. Had the Yankees’ Aaron Judge swung and missed that pitch, it would have hit him in the chest. Roughly 99.99999% of hitters trying to hit that pitch would smash it into the third-base dugout, if they were capable of making solid contact.

Varland and Polanco last participated in the postseason in 2023, helping the Twins defeat Toronto. Is this month prompting rational regret from Twins fans?

In January 2024, the Twins traded Polanco to Seattle for starter Anthony DeSclafani, reliever Justin Topa and prospects Gabriel Gonzalez and Darren Bowen. DeSclafani missed the 2024 season because of a forearm injury and never pitched for the Twins. Topa has pitched 62⅓ innings for the Twins over the past two seasons. Gonzalez, an outfielder, is ranked as the Twins’ eighth-best prospect by MLB.com.

This is one of many examples of the Twins front office feeling forced to ditch a quality player because of financial concerns. They chose to keep Kepler instead of Polanco, which was a mistake. Polanco is exactly the kind of consistent middle-of-the-order hitter the Twins have been missing.

The Twins traded the talented and valuable Varland (and Ty France, who was a disposable asset) for lefthanded pitcher Kendry Rojas and corner outfielder Alan Roden. The Twins expect Rojas to be an impact pitcher, whether in the rotation or bullpen. Roden is their best defensive corner outfielder and a potential impact bat.

The Polanco deal was a mistake, especially since Polanco was the rare Twin who begged to be in the lineup every day, even when he needed a full roll of athletic tape to hold his ankles together.