PITTSBURGH – Jung Ho Kang has already arrived in the Dominican Republic, set to play winter ball during the offseason. Neal Huntington confirmed on Sunday to reporters, including Alan Saunders, that Kang will be playing in the Dominican for 90 days, and will be ready to play once he gets game-conditioned. He will play third base mostly, but might also get some time at shortstop.
“Our goal is to just get him in the batter’s box, get him on the bases, get him there defensively,” Huntington said. “As we go, we’ll see how he feels and how things are going. We could bounce him around a little bit.”
Huntington said that the Pirates got an exemption from MLB to not have to reinstate Kang from the restricted list while he is playing. This means they won’t have to go the entire offseason with a wasted 40-man spot.
As for whether Kang has a future in Pittsburgh, Huntington didn’t sound optimistic, noting that the team would have to make a decision on him quickly in the offseason.
“We’ll get to point in time where if we still don’t know whether he’s coming. If he is able to secure a visa to get into the country, we’ll have an extra really good player. … We’ll need to know early in the offseason.”
I’m not optimistic that Kang will ever be able to return. If he does return, there would be questions about how effective he could be after so much time off. Huntington said that Kang has been working hard while he’s out, although the results will probably be seen during winter ball.
“He’s worked hard to stay as close to in baseball condition as he could,” Huntington said. “He’s going to need some time to get up to game speed. We’ll have a lot of people go down and travel down with him and try to continue to keep him where he needs to be. So far, so good.”
Marte and Polanco in Winter Ball?
Huntington was asked whether Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco would play in winter ball this offseason, especially after late injuries with both players.
“There are ways that major-league clubs can impact whether a player can play or not,” Huntington said. “If a player doesn’t meet those requirements, the player can choose to play. In some ways that’s good. In some ways, that’s a challenge for us. We’ll have conversations with each of those players about our thoughts on them playing winter ball, the benefits and the risks.”
The bigger injury risk is Polanco, who has dealt with a lot of injury issues throughout his career, and during this year. Huntington addressed those issues.
“This is a can-do league,” Huntington said. “There are guys that exceed expectations, there are guys that take a while to get to expectations and then there are guys that never get to expectations. We certainly believe Gregory is going to be a very good major-league player. He needs to get his legs back under him. He needs to have — as we need to have — a good off-season. … He showed some huge flashes of promise in Spring Training and in the World Baseball Classic and then things didn’t go the way we’d anticipated. A minor injury coming out of Spring Training and cost him some did. Did he ever get his feet under him? Literally and figuratively? Time will tell.”
Prospect Updates
**Huntington said that Austin Meadows is still working through his return to health, and they are still working out the plan for him in winter ball.
**Cole Tucker won’t play in the Arizona Fall League. Mitchell Tolman has been added to the roster to replace him. Kevin Kramer will play shortstop in the AFL, which is a result of Tucker going down.
“We have a spot, because Cole was our priority player,” Huntington said. “Kevin’s played short before, so it was an opportunity to slide him over and get him a bunch of at bats against quality competition.”
