| Christopher Reina. 3rd December, 2009 - 7:27 pm
 Placido Polanco agreed to a three-year, $18 million deal with the Phillies to become their starting third baseman, replacing Pedro Feliz. The deal is reminiscent of their previous two free agent signings of David Bell and Pedro Feliz (both from the Giants) in the sense that they are all reliable, low risk, low ceiling players at a fairly reasonable price. When a team has Chase Utley at second base, Ryan Howard at first and Jimmy Rollins at shortstop, the infield would be pretty well set offensively even if I was thrown out at the hot corner.
The annual compensation rate is reasonable, though that third season when Polanco is a quickly aging 37-year-old.
After several successful seasons in which he hovered a little below the .800 OPS mark and one season at .830, Polanco had a disappointing, injury-plagued 2006 when the Tigers reached the World Series by hitting for an OPS of .693.
He did rebound in the postseason by posting excellent numbers against the Yankees and A's before completely tanking the World Series going 0-for-17 against St. Louis.
Polanco had a quick turnaround in 2007, having the best season of his career by posting an OPS of .845 (.341/.388/.458), making his first All-Star Game and also winning a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger.
stabilizes
His OPS dropped, however, during each of the past two seasons. He hit .307/.350/.417 in 2008 and .285/.331/.727 in 2009, though he did win another Gold Glove at second base.
But Polanco will be moving positions, becoming Philadelphia's everyday third baseman. He should make that transition with relative ease, though his arm can't compare whatsoever to Feliz.
Polanco should enjoy returning to the NL and also to Citizen's Bank Park, where he has a career OPS of .871 compared to just .794 at Comerica Park.
This signing reminds me a lot of the Raul Ibanez move last winter, which worked out very nicely for Philadelphia, at least in year one. Teams that have reached the World Series in consecutive seasons value stability, as they don't need a career year out of Polanco to return again. Charlie Manuel can pencil Polanco into the bottom half of the lineup and know he is getting a professional hitter who won't clog the lineup with strikeouts and should have an OBP above .350 while playing a good defensive third base.
Grade for Phillies: B+
Grade for Polanco: A-
Grade for Tigers: F
I realize the Tigers are in financial constraints, but not offering arbitration to Polanco was akin to throwing away the draft compensation. There was virtually no chance that Polanco would settle for a one-year arbitration pact at this age and if he did, I'm certain they could have given him away in a trade. The only logic against the low risk is that the Tigers don't even have the cash for a draft pick signing bonus. |
