Breaking Down Newest Mets Infielder Jorge Polanco
On Saturday, the New York Mets made their biggest free agent signing of the offseason. They signed career-infielder Jorge Polanco to a two-year, $40 million contract. The 32-year-old will be joining the organization after two seasons in Seattle. He spent 10 years in Minnesota prior to joining the Mariners in 2024.
Polanco owns a career slash line of .263/.330/.442 (.771 OPS). His lone All-Star season was 2019 when he set a previous career-high in homers at 22. He busted out in a big way in 2021 when he hit 33 homers to go along with 98 RBIs and a .826 OPS. The following three seasons, in 2022 through 2024, he hit 16, 14, and 16 homers, respectively. Then, last season, he hit the second-most homers (26) to go along with the third-highest OPS (.821) of his career.
As far as postseason experience goes, Polanco has played in 24 postseason games over his career. He owns a career .209/.308/.385 (.692 OPS) playoff slash line. He had a few notable homers last season in Seattle’s run to the American League Championship Series.
As a hitter overall, Polanco pulls the ball a ton. His career pull rate is 34.9% (MLB average is 29.0%). His pull rate in 2025 was the highest of his career at a staggering 42.3%. The veteran also did a great job at cutting his strikeout rate in almost half in 2025. In 2024, he posted the highest strikeout rate of his career at 29.2%. In 2025, that figure dropped to 15.6%. The 15.6% figure was the lowest of his career since the 2020 season. From 2022 through 2024, his strikeout rate steadily rose from the early 20% range peaking at the aforementioned 29.2% mark last season.
One of the impacts of cutting down his strikeout rate was a decrease in walk rate. Despite striking out a ton from 2022 through 2024, Polanco had his walk rate to marks 2-to-5% higher than the league average of 8.3%. His overall career walk rate is above the MLB average (8.7% to 8.3%). However, his 8.0% walk rate in 2025 was the lowest of his career since 2021.
In 2025, Polanco posted one of his better analytical seasons of his career, thus the very strong OPS and wRC+ figures. He ranked above the league 60th percentile in xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, average exit velocity, barrel rate, hard-hit rate, squared-up rate, and strikeout rate. Historically, Polanco usually has above average whiff and chase rates.
One of the concerns with Polanco is how poor his analytical profile was just as recent as 2024. As strong as his 2025 was, his 2024 season saw him rank below the 35th percentile in xBA, average exit velocity, squared-up rate, whiff rate, and strikeout rate. Encouragingly, outside of 2024, and a hiccup in 2020, dating back to 2019, his analytical make-up has been relatively strong thus the above-average career OPS and batting average.
Jorge Polanco. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
As a switch-hitter, Polanco has historically had pretty even splits against left-handed and right-handed pitching. Against right-handed pitching he has a career .260 batting average and a .786 OPS. Meanwhile, against left-handed pitching, he owns a career .270 batting average and .736 OPS. As you can see, his power has historically come from the left side of the plate against right-handed pitching. In 2025, Polanco killed left-handed pitching with a .305 batting average and an .888 OPS. Though, in most seasons, his splits are pretty even.
A last interesting hitting note on Polanco is, historically, he has been a terrific hitter with runners in scoring position (RISP). In his career, he owns a .306/.368/.515 (.883 OPS) slash line with RISP. This was exemplified in 2025 when he owned a .337 batting average and .985 OPS.
Defensively, Polanco has historically played in the middle infield. Throughout his 12-year big league career, he has spent 501 games at shortstop and 430 games at second base. Polanco has often been a negative defender. He owns a negative-28 outs above average (OAA) and negative-20 fielding run value (FRV) at second base in his career. At shortstop, he owns a career negative-32 OAA and negative-29 FRV. Given this, the Mets reportedly won’t be playing him at either position, and instead give him time at the much easier first base spot and let him designated hit a lot.
Given MLB Trade Rumors only projected a three-year, $42 million deal it appears as if Stearns and the Mets staff sacrificed some average annual value to get the years down to only two. At $20 million annually, it is a pretty steep price tag. However, he will be off the books in just two seasons. If he can provide anything like the offensive pop he did in 2025, he should provide great value to the Mets.
As a pure hitter, outside 2020 and 2024, Polanco has been comfortably above average at the plate each season. He should provide an immediate pop in the middle of the Mets’ order. A lineup that desperately needs it given the departures of Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo. A nice add for the Mets.
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