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Gregory Polanco Sent to AAA

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Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Pittsburgh Pirates have sent Gregory Polanco to Triple-A. The move will be short-term, as the minor league season only has a week left. As he says in the tweet below, no corresponding move has been announced.

Polanco has a .241/.308/.349 line in 249 at-bats this season. He has been struggling lately, going 1-for-30 in the last few weeks. In that time he has been losing playing time to Travis Snider in right field, with Snider having the hot bat. There was a lot of focus on Super 2 status when Polanco was first called up. The demotion to Triple-A until the end of their season makes it less likely that Polanco will be Super 2 eligible. If he is called up on September 2nd (the day after Indianapolis ends their season), then he will finish the season with 104 days of service time.

I can’t imagine what Polanco will learn in a week at Triple-A, so this move seems to be a move to prevent him from wasting service time in the majors while he is being benched for Snider. It might seem strange to focus on Super 2 with the way he has played this year, although there have been a lot of projected impact players who have struggled initially, only to return with much better numbers their second year in pro ball. The Super 2 focus was always a long-term thing, and never about what Polanco could do immediately.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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