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

Mike Morse, SS, Mariners (Age 23, 10 games, 8/7/05)  Rookie Morse had a .287 batting average and .748 OPS. He was 4  for 21 with 4 K´s in his next 6 games. Finished with a .278 averager and .718 OPS. In his time at Triple-A Tacoma he hit for a batting average of .253 with a .723 OPS at AAA Tacoma. Morse had three seasons with 100 games or more in his 13 year major league career.

Rafael Palmeiro,1B, Orioles (Age 40 10 games, 8/1/05) Palmeiro gets a mention even though it was his final season. Batting for an average of .280 with a .826 OPS when suspended. He went 2 for 22 with a double in his first 6 games back and finished with a .266 average and .786 OPS. Palmeiro´s career ended with a torrent of boo’s to the point where he tried wearing earplugs. “Palmeiro, who entered last night with 3,020 career hits and 569 homers and is a potential Hall of Fame member, was booed loudly in each of his four at-bats in his first appearance in Toronto since returning from a 10-day suspension Aug. 11 for violating Major League Baseball’s steroid policy.”

Alex Sanchez, OF, Rays, Giants  (Age 28, 10 games, 4/3/05)  The first to be suspended for PEDs is the last on this list. He went 11 for 24, 1 2B, 1 K, 2 out of 3 in stolen base attempts, but was picked off twice in his first 6 games back. Sanchez was hitting for a .346 average and .839 OPS  in 133 at-bats when he was waived by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and picked up by the Giants in late June. Sanchez had a .256 average and 614 OPS in 19 games for the Giants. While he could hit, his defense was remarkably bad. He committed 6 errors in 320 innings that season. Sanchez was granted free agency at the end of 2005, and spent the next 5 seasons in the minors. His major league career ended at age 28.