Minnesota Twins: Can Polanco’s return jumpstart the Twin’s offense?

How well did the past PED violators do in their mid-season returns

The next three pages chart the performances of a dozen position players and their first 6 games coming back from similar mid-season suspensions to Polanco’s. These players combined to go 64 for 238, or a .269 batting average. Aside from Mike Morse, all the players were at least four years older than Polanco, with only Palmeiro and Ramirez older than 33.

Starling Marte, OF, Pirates (Age 28-Suspended 80 games on 4/18/17) Marte returned to hit .333 (9 for 27) in his first 6 games back and raised his overall numbers from prior to the suspension.

Dee Gordon, 2B, Marlins (Age 28, 80 games, 4/29/16)  Gordon went 7 for 23 in his first 6 games back and his stats were virtually the same before and after his suspension.

Chris Colabello, 1B, Blue Jays  (Age 32, 80 games, 4/22/16)  Hit for a .321 average and .886 OPS in 2015 and managed 2 singles in the final 29 at-bats of his major league career following the suspension.

Abraham Almonte, OF, Indians (Age 27, 80 games, 2/26/16)  2-15 with 5 K´s and a walk in the 6 games. His batting average stayed the same, .264, but his OPS dropped from .776 in 2015 to .695 in 2016.

Cameron Maybin, OF, Padres (Age 27, 25 games, 7/23/14)  4 for 14 in 6 games. His 2014 line dropped from a .267 average and .717 OPS pre-suspension to end up with a .235 average and .621 OPS. The aforementioned Almonte got the lion’s share of centerfield duty during Maybin’s suspension.