Minnesota Twins 2018 positional recap, part 4- Shortstops
Despite an early season suspension to their projected starter, the Minnesota Twins had a relatively stable situation at shortstop in 2019.
Today we continue recapping the Minnesota Twins’ 2018 season by looking at each position individually. If you’ve missed any of our previous recaps, here are some links to get you caught up:
The majority of the innings at shortstop this year were handled by Jorge Polanco and Ehire Adrianza. Eduardo Escobar covered a few weeks worth of games at short, and Gregorio Petit and Taylor Motter handed the position for a few innings each as well, which rounds out the Twins’ 2018 shortstops. Here, we’ll focus mostly on Polanco and Adrianza, as they were the two starters at shortstop for most of the season. Escobar, Petit, and Motter filled in when needed, but the large majority of the work was handled by Polanco and Adrianza.
2018 recap
There was bad news at shortstop very early on in the season for the Minnesota Twins, when Jorge Polanco was suspended 80 games after testing positive for a performance enhancing substance. News of the suspension broke around 2 weeks before the first game of the season, leaving the team scrambling to figure out how they would address the now-vacant starting shortstop role.
The Twins had actually signed veteran infielder Erick Aybar to a minor league contract about a month before Polanco was suspended. However, Aybar opted out upon learning several days after Polanco was suspended that he would not make the major league roster.
Eduardo Escobar handled the majority of the shortstop responsibilities to start the season, with Ehire Adrianza filling in as needed. However, once Miguel Sano injured his hamstring in late April and ended up missing a full month of games, Escobar shifted over to third base, Adrianza became the starting SS, and Gregorio Petit became a backup infielder. That alignment would end up being the typical arrangement for the rest of the first half as the season, as Sano struggled upon returning and was not able to force Escobar back to short.
Escobar had performed great as the starting shortstop, hitting .301 through the first 24 games of the season with 11 doubles and 4 home runs. Adrianza didn’t play quite as well as the starter, but still put together some solid performances. From the start of May to the end of June, he slashed .273/.321/.440 with 11 doubles and 4 home runs across 48 games.
Then, on July 2nd, Jorge Polanco returned to the lineup and caused things to shift yet again. He slotted back in as the everyday shortstop, pushing Adrianza back to a backup role. Escobar remained the everyday third baseman. Through the rest of the season, Polanco put up more good numbers. In 77 games, he slashed .288/.345/.427 with 18 doubles, 6 home runs, and 42 RBI. Adrianza, meanwhile, saw his numbers drop for the rest of the season after being bumped from the starting shortstop. From July 1st through the end of the season, he slashed .236/.283/.338 with 9 doubles and 2 home runs in 51 games. Gregorio Petit and Taylor Motter each saw a few innings at shortstop before the end of the year as well, but neither did enough in terms of quantity nor quality to warrant elaborating further on them.
Looking Forward
Shifting focus to next season, Jorge Polanco appears to be the answer at shortstop for 2019. After a strong 2016, Polanco’s season-long numbers in 2017 dipped a bit, largely due to a poor month of July where he hit only .078, totaling just 4 hits in 17 games. Even with that poor month, he had a solid season and gave Minnesota Twins fans reasons to be excited to have him in the lineup for the next several seasons. His suspension for the first portion of 2018 was disappointing, but after serving his time, he played quite well throughout the second half.
Of course, many consider Twins top prospect Royce Lewis to be the ultimate heir to shortstop, and with good reason. After being selected by the Twins first overall in the 2017 MLB draft, Lewis has been stellar, posting a .311/.367/.438 line across 2 seasons ranging from rookie ball to Advanced A. If Lewis keeps up this pace, it is likely that he would take over at shortstop while Polanco moves over to 2nd base. However, Lewis is highly unlikely to debut in 2019, and may need a significant portion of 2020 to smooth things out in the minors as well. After all, he did just turn 19 in June!
Ehire Adrianza is the only real threat to stealing reps from Polanco at this point, but even he hasn’t made a strong push to do so. He’s had a decent tenure with the Minnesota Twins, don’t get me wrong, but his stats don’t warrant a starting role at this point. Adrianza will almost certainly be back in 2019 as a utility infielder, though, and he likely will get a good amount of playing time at a few different positions, even if he never becomes a starter.
The only other player worth mentioning here is prospect Nick Gordon. He’s played both 2B and SS in the minors and could likely handle either in the MLB. Gordon is likely to debut at some point in 2019, and nobody’s really sure what we’ll get from him. In the first half in both 2017 and 2018, he was great, hitting .308 through June in 2017 and .290 through June in 2018. Then, however, he completely collapsed. Through the rest of the 2017 season, he hit only .219. From July to the end of the season in 2018, he was even worse, managing an average of just .191. Gordon isn’t overly quick and won’t hit for much of any power, so any productive contributions to the Twins’ major league offense is going to come through a high batting average. Yet, with the awful 2nd halves he’s had each of the past two seasons, there’s no way to tell what Gordon may bring to the table. Either way, Gordon is likely going to get his first shot at the MLB at some point in 2019. It’s unlikely he challenges Polanco for time at shortstop, but stranger things have happened.
Matt’s predictions
Shortstop will probably be one of the easier positions to predict for 2019. There’s really not much reason anyone other than Jorge Polanco would be the starter for the season, barring an injury or another suspension. I see Adrianza sticking around as a solid bench infielder capable of filling in at 2B, 3B, and SS, and Nick Gordon will likely debut at some point as well. I’m guessing he gets his chance at 2B since Polanco has shortstop pretty well locked down, but again, you never know.
All in all, shortstop is one of the less contested positions for the Twins in 2019. Polanco has looked pretty good offensively lately, and the hopes will be that he continues to provide good production. He may only hold SS until Lewis makes his way to the MLB in 2020 or 2021, but even then he’ll likely stick in the lineup elsewhere.
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Another option that seems unlikely but may be worth mentioning is that the Twins could elect to sign a shortstop this offseason and move Polanco over to 2B right away. This probably wouldn’t be too inspiring of a decision, as after Manny Machado, the best available free agent shortstops are the likes of Freddy Galvis, Jose Iglesias, and Adeiny Hechavarria, but again, this probably isn’t a very likely scenario. Given the numerous logical options among free agent second basemen this offseason (see Jed Lowrie, Asdrubal Cabrera, Ian Kinsler, Logan Forsythe, and even Brian Dozier, to name a few), it’s much more likely that Polanco sticks at short for at least one more season.
Next. Minnesota Twins Offseason Blueprint. dark
In summary
Polanco’s suspension threw the Minnesota Twins a curveball shortly before the season started, but they managed the situation fairly easily with Escobar and Adrianza covering the majority of the shortstop responsibilities until Polanco’s suspension was finished. Polanco returned, played well, and should continue to be the everyday shortstop until Royce Lewis graduates to the MLB. All the while, Adrianza remains more than capable as a backup infielder.