The Astros have ongoing interest in Jorge Polanco, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. According to Chandler Rome and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Houston could experiment with Polanco in left field if they land him.
That’d be a first for the switch-hitting Polanco, who hasn’t played a single major league inning in the outfield. He has logged over 7500 defensive innings in his career. Nearly all of them have come in the middle infield, while he also has a handful of starts at third base. His professional outfield experience consists of 73 innings in rookie ball in 2011-12.
Playing Polanco in left field would be no less of a roll of the dice than it would be to send Jose Altuve out there. The latter option is seemingly on the table only if the Astros re-sign Alex Bregman, who’d retake his spot at third base while pushing Isaac Paredes to second base. Altuve has never started an MLB game at a position other than second base (or designated hitter), but he indicated over the weekend he’d be happy to try his hand in left field if it meant getting Bregman back on the roster. In any case, the Astros haven’t seemed enamored with the unsigned lefty-hitting outfield options (e.g. Alex Verdugo, Jason Heyward).
Houston’s interest in Polanco seems to be as a fallback if Bregman signs elsewhere. General manager Dana Brown said on Saturday that while Houston has had recent talks with their longtime third baseman, it remains a “long shot” that he’ll return. The Athletic reported last week that the team’s previously reported six-year, $156MM offer remains on the table. However, it’s not clear if the Astros are open to pushing that any further. Unsurprisingly, Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 wrote this afternoon that Bregman was unlikely to return unless the team upped its offer.
While Polanco would obviously be far less expensive, it’s questionable whether he’d fit in Houston’s spending plans. The Astros are set to offload $8.5MM of Ryan Pressly’s salary once his trade to the Cubs is finalized. That dropped the team’s estimated luxury tax number to roughly $236MM (per RosterResource). They’re now about $5MM below the $241MM base tax threshold; they were a little more than $3MM above the line before the Pressly trade.
Houston exceeded the luxury tax threshold last season. That their offer is still out to Bregman confirms they’re open to doing so again in certain circumstances. That’s not surprising with regards to a homegrown star who has been one of the faces of the most successful run in franchise history. Paying the competitive balance tax to accommodate Polanco — who hit .213/.296/.355 in a career-worst season with the Mariners last year — could be a tougher sell for ownership.
It seems likely that Polanco will beat $5MM wherever he winds up. He was one of the game’s better offensive second basemen between 2021-23. He’d played through a patellar tendon injury in his left knee last season. He underwent postseason surgery and is expected to be ready for Opening Day. The knee injury coupled with the challenge of hitting at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park make him an intriguing rebound target as he enters his age-31 season. Even if Polanco ends up settling for less than $5MM, the signing would at least put the Astors right on the border of the threshold. If they prefer to stay below the CBT line, they’d probably need to offload more money in a trade or have limited payroll room for midseason acquisitions.
Another ridiculous brain fart from the Astros front office or more nonsense invented by Rome/Rosenthal/McTaggart ?
Jason Heyward would be a better option.
Polanco has been linked enough times now. Someone in the Astros FO really likes something in Polanco’s data.
Dana has made some very interesting moves this offseason
Someone who doesn’t spend much time being worried about what others think or being criticized. If results aren’t good he’ll get criticized either way. Soo
Imagine – That.
NOT by the Book – which book?
Maybe the Road Less Traveled
It adds pressure on Bregman’s team. Rumors don’t cost a thing.
maybe but that didn’t work with Paredes or Walker
Yeah I don’t know about this.
Jury is still out on Dana Brown, who essentially inherited this team from Click. (Who inherited a team from Luhnow)
James Click made a bunch of good moves. I’m not saying he batted 1.000, but he was an excellent GM in my opinion. Lunhow was a genius who changed the game. Ironically, Lunhow has been banished from the game and Click will go down as the only GM to be fired for winning the World Series.
Dana Brown hasn’t lived up to their levels. He did inherit a team at the end of its contention window, but I question his desire to constantly burn 1st round picks on QO players. I also think dumping Pressly was foolish. The contract was underwater, but he’s still effective on a one year deal. The bullpen lost a useful piece.
I also don’t understand ownership’s obsession with staying under the CBT. So much money is about to come off the books and the window is closing. Now is the time to go for it.
I wish Crane would resurrect Lunhow, but that doesn’t obviously will never happen.
I also agree about Click. I think he was solid. I’ve wrote before about his being tied in the draft/IFA market and he still produced talent with limitations.
Nonetheless, he inherited a fantastic roster with a lot of good players in his system. Just has to be said.
Dana
I do too.
The M’s should resign him. He was injured pretty much the entire year last year and he shouldn’t cost much more than $8 million/yr.
Also, it typically takes players more than a year to get comfortable with their surroundings, city, team culture, etc.
Pass. His glove is horrendous. He has no range and a noodle arm.
Oh please! He came in healthy and did not hit from the start. The Mariners are cheap but I would hope not stupid. I hope. Go M’s.
While I agree it takes time I dont see how Polo coming off surgery is better than Bliss. If neither guy can hit we might as well go with the free one with a better glove.
Honestly if they sign Polanco I would be very confused and very upset. We don’t need any more random infielders. Polanco is terrible at defense and has a weak arm, sticking him in LF wouldn’t make any sense. The Astros should just be settling for at least a league average outfielders like Verdugo, since even a barely league average player would be a huge upgrade over the 3 slotted OFs projected
HOU thinking “Out of the Box”
Bold Disruptors
Insert Star Trek opening line here OR
Twilight Zone
And now for something completely different – a man with . . .
BTW it’s time for a new James Bond
movie.
Stream of Consciousness
Sleep Deprived
LF is a place you can stash somebody with a weak arm, especially in a ballpark where it is relatively small. Remember Johnny Damon?
I never realized how poor of a defender Altuve has been over the past several seasons.
I know he’s hurt and likely a little out of Astros current budget but Kim would be a perfect fit for Houston. Obviously Kim is a premier defender in the league, elite contact skills, speed and he has dead pull power.
He would look wonderful on their IL. No one knows when he will be able to play. Pretty sure Kim is the side waiting. He will want to showcase before taking offers.
Happ has a really weak arm as well but manages to be one of the better LF defenders and gets a lot of outfield assists.
Altuve has been a pretty horrible defender at second for several seasons now, it may be more wise to let him patrol outfield than keep him at second. I could be wrong but with Kim it’s only going to be a 1-2 year commitment.
Reports are Kim is due back sometime in May
I don’t think Jorge Polanco is anybody’s first choice, especially as an outfielder. Jorge is a switch hitter who had a down year last year, but then everybody has a down year when they play half their games in Seattle. I think Randall Grichuk would probably be a better choice than Jorge Polanco even though he’s right handed. Balance in a lineup is nice, but results are even nicer. My belief is that Randall Grichuk would hit lefties & righties better than Polanco.
Oh, and Randall Grichuk actually is an outfielder.
Why not convert him to C at age 32? (rounding up)
I thought he was older.
What could possibly go wrong?
But seriously many above average athletic players can do a decent job as long as it is not CF. He should be relatively inexpensive by MLB standards.
There are plenty of competent outfielders on the market still before going the polanco route. Polanco is too much of a liability defensively and too much of an injury risk. Grichuk or hayes make more sense.
Why not a Austin Hayes or Verdugo? You know guys that are available that play the position??? What weirdness some of these GMs employee.
Jays should consider him for 3B. gives them a switch hitting bat with some pop and he could at least platoon with Clement as Polanco has been stronger vs LHP.
Polanco is definitely far from a perfect solution. As a switch hitter his bat plays. I’ll take his numbers last year with a grain of salt since he has a .646 career OPS at T-mobile. .870 career OPS with RISP; .835 with runners on, so that can help improve on last year’s all-you-can-eat LOBster buffets.
In line with other posters have said, kicking a career infielder to the outfield because outfield offense is dreadful and telling him “You’re it!” is like laughing loudly in front of Murphy’s Law and saying, “what could possibly go wrong!”
I know,…. lets go after somebody that is actually a productive LH hitting outfielder. O hsht, thats right they’re already off the board Altuve saying he’ll play left if Bregman will just come back(surely a boreus play), lets go after polanco not an OFer than has an obp sub .300. Brown looks really bad now………..