Gregory Polanco remains open to extension

Gregory Polanco tells reporters he remains interested in the possibility of an extension, although he and the Pirates have not discussed one recently. Rob Biertempfel writes that the Pirates came "very close" to extending Polanco last year, and notes that he expects the two sides to continue talking soon. Jon Heyman had previously reported that the two sides got very close indeed, with only some minor differences between them regarding the team options that would have been included in the deal.

As I've written several times, I'm a big advocate of extending Polanco. He's far enough from free agency that the Pirates still have a lot of leverage with him, and although he hasn't blossomed into a star yet, he possesses many of the traits you might associate with a player who might become one -- he's young, athletic and toolsy, and he's shown, especially at the minor league level, that he knows his way around the strike zone.

Polanco now has between one and two years of service time. His camp could conceivably point to the seven-year, $49.6 million deal Christian Yelich signed last year as a precedent, although Polanco doesn't have quite the track record Yelich did. The Bucs would likely aim a bit lower (perhaps looking to their own deal with Starling Marte, which guaranteed $31 million over six years) and would probably still try for more team options than the one Yelich gave up.