Does Jorge Polanco Have Any Business Switch Hitting?

The Twins miss having a hitting coach

The Twins have two coaches. Do you mean they need a new hitting coach?

I think he's referring to the the drop in production from the Twins bats overall since Rowson left. Varela has to go.

The Twins have two coaches. Do you mean they need a new hitting coach?

Varela has never been a hitting coach before, nor at this point likely to be poached for another job. Hernandez was not a hitting coach before he got the current position. He had been the assistant to Brunansky and Rowson yet not promoted after 6 years.  That is telling his skill level. The Twins have people with a title. 

Sorry, I'm very confused by this OP. Where did I miss that Polanco has always been a better LH hitter before his knee injury, but not fixed the first time before supposedly being fixed the second time before this season.

He was practically staggering at tbe plate in 2020 because his knee was so bad. He lost all power and ability to barrell up. Reportedly, the knee is good now. Early struggles not withstanding...getting stroke and timing back...he's healthy and ready to go. At this point, unless there is something going on we don't know about, it's all about confidence and approach and getting his stroke back.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn t he always been better from the LH side of the plate?

Yes, Polanco has always been a better hitter from the left side and he is a really good player. No disrespect intended but this post is misinformed and off. It is true that Polanco played through significant injuries in the last two years because the Twins were short-handed and needed his position in play even with his diminished skills. It does seem like he developed some unfortunate side habits related to compensating for his injuries and he is now working through these inefficiencies.  Polanco is a gamer though and while we are not exactly sure how he will look by this summer we do know that his past sacrifice for the team is worthy of a full look and the respect that acknowledges his efforts for the Twins. I expect Jorge will manage to correct his footwork and timing to return to a his prior performance before serious ankle  injuries reduced his effectiveness at the plate and in the field. In my mind, Polanco has earned the right to work through these struggles and when he does the team will benefit from the patience.

Yes, Polanco is naturally a better LH hitter, IMO it's crazy to have him give up hitting LH. IMO the problem has been over stretching him at SS, which caused his ankle problem. Unfortunately that greatly affected him hitting LH. Together with covid and the unjuiced ball really threw a wrench in his hitting prowess.

They are on the right track by returning him to 2B. It will take time to undo the damage and find his groove. But I'm confident that he will.

Polanco being a better career LH batter aside, what change do you propose? Have him start hitting RH pitchers as a RH batter, something he’s never done before in a pro game?

It's way too early for this assessment.  Especially considering that he's already had a four hit game this season and those all came from the left side.

Just the improvement from the first 10 games until present shows that he's coming around.  I think he'll be back to his .270/.330/.420 self by mid-May.

Batting right-handed against a right-hander is difficult for those who have been doing it their whole life. I highly doubt Polanco will be able to just switch to facing righties as a righty, which I assume he has not done for a very long time, and have any more success than facing them as a lefty, even though that is currently a struggle for him as well.

"2019 was an outlying year for Polanco as a left handed hitter."

No. He had success in 2018 against RH pitchers as well. Polanco has had right ankle surgery each of the last two seasons. He may have developed some bad habits from compensation. He needs work from the left side, but certainly not enough for a 27 year old veteran to give up switch hitting. 

Varela has never been a hitting coach before, nor at this point likely to be poached for another job. Hernandez was not a hitting coach before he got the current position. He had been the assistant to Brunansky and Rowson yet not promoted after 6 years.  That is telling his skill level. The Twins have people with a title. 

You really truly believe that the entire Twins management team has zero idea what they are doing in their hiring process and simply promoted guys from within the organization because of nepotism or incompetence? 

I will agree that his numbers the last two years have been much better hitting RH than LH, but up until 2020, it was the other way around.  To say that 2019 was outlier is not accurate, as in his prior years he hit better LH than RH.  Yes, the last two years have been flipped and now he is more even.  It will be great if he can fix his issues, but up until 2020 he was better from left side so to scrap it because of recent struggles is going far.  I bet if he flipped now he would not do well. 

Being a switch hitter is a valuable asset and Polanco has been doing pretty well at it until he hurt his ankle. Patience is what is needed.