COLUMN: Pittsburgh Pirates handling Polanco injury correctly

The Pittsburgh Pirates are drawing some criticism for their handling of Polanco’s injury. That criticism should be redirected.

In 2014, the Pittsburgh Pirates slogged through August without the services of Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen for significant stretches. Their absence opened the door for Jayson Nix, Brent Morel and Michael Martinez to log significant time for a team in the thick of a playoff hunt.

If that sentence caused you to shudder, then the team’s current situation with Gregory Polanco is probably downright frightening.

Horror movies are usually always accompanied by a bad sequel. Formulaic, predictable.

But in this instance, the 2016 hand-wringing over a star player’s injury and how it was handled couldn’t be more different from the original version.

UPDATE

At the original time of this writing, Polanco’s status was up in the air. When today’s lineup card was announced, Polanco was back in the lineup in RF. He did not go on the DL as originally expected.

A Bad Memory Made Fresh

The Pittsburgh Pirates were in a fight for their playoff lives on August 4th. That was the first day that McCutchen missed a game after injuring his oblique against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Meanwhile, Walker was moving through his best season to date, but had been in and out of the lineup since August 1st with a flareup of his chronic back issues.

Both players did not go the disabled list with any sense of urgency. To Clint Hurdle and Pirates management’s credit, McCutchen stayed out of the lineup until it became clear a DL stint was needed. In the case of Walker, the team attempted to treat the issue with rest and tested him regularly. From August 1st through August 14th, Walker played in just four games, or 18 innings if you prefer. From comments at the time, Hurdle and staff thought Walker could grit it out.

Consider it a hard lesson learned for Hurdle. But is he applying that lesson to Polanco?

Will He or Won’t He?

In 2016, the Pittsburgh Pirates are again in a dogfight for a playoff position. They are again a very flawed team, and they again have a major cog in their lineup walking around with a dark cloud overhead.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#000000″ class=”” size=””]But in this instance, the 2016 hand-wringing over a star player’s injury and how it was handled couldn’t be more different from the original version.[/perfectpullquote]

Polanco missed the final two games of the pre-All Star Break series against the Chicago Cubs with hamstring tightness. Heading into the break in the midst of an 0-for-14 slump, many felt the time off would mentally help the third-year player. Fast forward through the break and through a three game absence in the Nationals series – while still in uniform – and you can almost forgive fans for goraning at the team’s reluctance to put him on the DL.

There’s just one problem with that thinking, however. The Pittsburgh Pirates are doing the right thing.

For a team that needs to stack wins, they were right to leave the door open for a Polanco return during a tough series right out of the post-break gate. With an easier slate at PNC Park to follow, Hurdle wanted to have all hands available under proverbial “break in case of emergency” glass.

Hurdle passed this test of temptation in yesterday’s game when he used Francisco Liriano as a pinch hitter instead of an in-uniform Polanco. This team is committed to doing what’s right by the player and by their season. The front office will have to engage in some roster dynamics tomorrow, the last day to declare a retroactive DL stint. But all things considered, fans should clamor for chances to baseball’s arcane disabled list rules before directing any venom towards the Pittsburgh Pirates.