Shalin Polanco: Better swing decisions key to taking next step in 2024

Polanco flashed a very loaded set of tools before an injury cut his 2023 season short.

Photo Credit: WTM

When the Pittsburgh Pirates gave Shalin Polanco $2.35 million to sign with them, they were banking on the upside of a young player who had some serious tools.

Like many international prospects, it’s been a bit of a journey, and while it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, the pieces seem to be there to take the next step.

Polanco recently left his teenage years behind him, turning 20 in February, and got into a spring training game on March 9 for the Pirates - hitting a double that went 102.8 mph off the bat.

Injuries cut his season short in 2023, but in 70 games, he hit 12 home runs while stealing 17 bases. Stretch those numbers out to about 110 games, and he could have pushed the 20/20 envelope (18/19 home runs, 26 stolen base pace) and still could grow into more power potentially.

Of the 14 position players on MLB Pipeline's recently released top 30 prospects, Polanco is the only one to get an above-average (55) grade on both his power and run tools.

He had a max exit velocity of 110 mph, and while he was a little below average when it comes to average EV and 95th percentile, there’s still more time to grow into some more power.

His Barrel rate (7.6%) was above average, especially considering his age, which speaks to the quality of contact he was getting.

That is the biggest key going into 2024, making more consistent contact and better swing decisions - to take advantage of his budding power potential.

The 28.7% strikeout rate wasn’t ideal, but he lowered it each month leading up to his injury. He also had a 37.9% chase rate, which is going to need to improve for him to succeed going forward.

He made solid contact in the zone (80.9% in-zone rate), it’s just a matter of not going after pitches.

The Pirates system gets a lot of attention for their pitching prospect depth, and while there are some hitters there, they haven’t had anyone really ‘breakthrough’ in some time.

Lonnie White Jr. and Termarr Johnson are usually talked about, but Polanco has the tools to make an impact in the minors wherever he is assigned.