Gregory Polanco has had a big off-season in the Dominican Winter Leagues. Now he’s having a huge series in the Dominican League finals. On Monday he showed off his plus speed, beating out a grounder to the second baseman. Forbes to Federal was able to find the video, so you can see just how fast Polanco really is. When I first imagined the play, I imagined something where the second baseman didn’t field the ball cleanly, or had to range to make a tough play. This hit included a high chop, but was right at the second baseman, fielded cleanly, and included a quick release. And Polanco still beat the throw.
As John Dreker wrote in his Winter League update this morning, Polanco followed that with a big home run last night. Imo Kemp provided the following GIF of the monster home run on Twitter.
It’s easy to see why Polanco is the number one prospect in the system, and was given a 3.2 WAR projection by ZiPS, which is typically conservative on prospect predictions.