Polanco Philly Bound

The trend of players returning to the city of Philadelphia continues. Yesterday, it was Allen Iverson to the Philadelphia 76ers and today it appears that Placido Polanco will rejoin the Philadelphia Phillies.

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com in Boston reported earlier today that the Phillies were close to a deal with the former Tiger. That was followed by ESPN’s Jayson Stark saying the two sides were working on a three year deal. And now, SI’s Jon Heyman is reporting that a deal is almost finalized and Polanco will be a member of the Philadelphia Phillies by the end of today.

The deal calls for Polanco to make $18 million over 3 years (mutual option for the 4th season according to MLB’s Todd Zolecki) to be the teams starting third baseman. That’s not a bad deal at all actually. Very affordable for a player who is pretty solid at the plate and outstanding in the field.

The only thing that may worry some people is that Polanco has only played third once since he left the Phillies in 2005. I wouldn’t worry about that at all. Polanco is such a good fielder that switching sides of the field shouldn’t be a problem. During his Phillies tenure he only made 5 errors in 263 total chances.

He may not be as good as Pedro Feliz was at the position last year but he provides much more at the plate, at a comparable salary.

In 2009, Polanco batted .285 with 10 homers and 72 rbis. The real debate in Philly is going to be which batter protects Jimmy Rollins? Shane Victorino had those duties last year and batted .292 with 10 homers, 62 rbis and scored 102 runs. I’m thinking it will be Polanco.

In my opinion, Polanco is a better situational hitter but more importantly Shane can add some spark to the bottom of the Phillies lineup. The lineup becomes pretty station to station at the bottom with Carlos Ruiz, Raul Ibanez and the pitcher occupying three of the bottom four spots.

Placing Victorino in the 8th spot you can easily have him standing on third with one out after a pitchers sacrifice and Jimmy Rollins coming to the plate. Place him in the 7th spot and he could also protect Ibanez better then a player like Ruiz can, pitchers have to respect Shane they don’t have to respect Ruiz. (sorry Phillies fans Ruiz is just not that good).

Bringing Polanco back to town is another solid move by general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. Now its time to work on the teams real needs, bench depth and pitching.