Gregory Polanco returned to his locker stall following batting practice Tuesday afternoon at PNC Park to discover he had more than 20 missed calls and 50 unread text messages. He scrolled through the messages to find well wishes from concerned friends and family members.
Many of the texts also included the same image. It was a screenshot of a tweet sent from what appeared to be ESPN's account, saying "Hot News: Gregory Polanco from Pitsburg Pirates to be suspended for 80 due to steroids." The name of the city was spelled wrong and the tweet contained another typo. However, news outlets in the Dominican Republic believed the tweet to be true and the story spread throughout his home country.
Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano, also a native of the Dominican Republic and a close friend of Polanco, was suspended 80 games earlier in the day for violating Major League Baseball's joint drug agreement. Polanco, starting in right field against the White Sox that night, quickly called his parents to assure them he was fine.
Both were crying when he finally got in touch with them.
"Everyone was so worried," Polanco told DKPittsburghSports.com Thursday afternoon. "My parents were crying. It was tough, man. I have to stay positive. It’s something that’s wrong. Don’t put my name on that. Stay away from me with that. I can't believe someone would do that."
Polanco then contacted friends and other family to inform them the tweet was fabricated. He didn't understand why someone would include him in such a ruse, and it was particularly upsetting after he saw Cano suspended earlier in the day and Starling Marte one year ago.
Marte, another close friend of Polanco, was suspended 80 games last April after testing positive for nandrolone. Polanco said he didn't get angry when he saw the image. Marte did, though. He quickly posted an expletive-filled tweet to express anger. Polanco doesn't run his own Twitter account, but he posted this, saying he was dodging the negativity directed towards him:
Cuando me vienen con esa negatividad ?? pic.twitter.com/Pax7BwOtLW
— Gregory Polanco ☕️ (@El_Coffee) May 15, 2018
Translated, that means, "When they come at me with that negativity."
"Starling went crazy," Polanco said. "I was like, 'No, man, don’t mess with me like that,' I’m going to stay positive. I stay away from it all. I didn’t even get angry. I stayed focused. I’m here to play. That’s it. I don’t let that offend me. It’s bad because it was my name on it. It was terrible."
The 26-year-old right fielder spent his offseason working out in Santo Domingo, flipping tractor tires on the beach and swinging a sledgehammer to strengthen his lower-body and core. After all, he was limited to 108 games last season because of a lingering left hamstring injury.
Polanco struggled when he was healthy, batting .251/.305/.391 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs. He declared himself healthy upon reporting for spring training in February and hit five home runs with 15 RBIs in his first 11 regular-season games, but he had only nine hits in his next 60 at-bats.
He's recovered to bat .317 over his last 11 games, including a 2-for-4, two-RBI performance hours after calling his parents Tuesday afternoon. He was relieved the tweet didn't make news in the United States, yet he was annoyed someone would go to such lengths to hurt his reputation and put his family through such an ordeal.
"I had to call and text everyone to say, 'I’m here, I’m good. Don’t worry.' People shouldn't mess around like that."
• Felipe Vázquez has played music in the clubhouse since the Pirates migrated from Pirate City to LECOM Park in February. He bought a turntable after watching his friend use one at a nightclub near Orlando and is mixing his own music using a MacBook Pro. His DJ-ing has reached a new level, though.
Vázquez purchased a white folding table to serve as his own DJ booth. It's standing between his and Marte's locker stalls, and it's going to be a permanent fixture in the clubhouse. He didn't ask his teammates for permission, either. — Lysowski
• Has anyone seen the Instagram videos of players wearing animal masks during those post-game celebrations in the clubhouse? Well, Vázquez purchased the masks online to add some flair to those videos posted online. He purchased four and plans to get more. Our conversation was all over the place, so I figured I'd share that random tidbit. — Lysowski
• The finger laceration that forced Jameson Taillon to leave his start against the Giants last Friday was the result of his thumbnail cutting his right middle finger when throwing a curveball. It's not an unusual injury, though. Many teams, the Pirates included, emphasize nail care to young pitchers throughout the minor leagues. — Lysowski
STEELERS
• It's not often I comment on stories or analysis pieces done by other outlets, but a ranking of the league's quarterback groups done by ESPN's Dan Graziano nearly made me spit out my breakfast Wednesday morning. In it, Graziano, who called it a "Quarterback Confidence Index," ranks the Steelers' quarterback situation 11th in the league. That in itself wouldn't be that big of a deal because he's not just ranking the starters, he's ranking the backups. But he had the Patriots' threesome of Tom Brady-Brian Hoyer-Danny Etling ranked third, the Saints' Drew Brees-Tom Savage duo fourth, Seattle's Russell Wilson-Austin Davis fifth, Atlanta's Matt Ryan-Matt Schaub sixth and the Chargers' Philip Rivers-Geno Smith-Cardale Jones eighth. He even had Dallas with Dak Prescott-Cooper Rush-Mike White ahead of the Steelers at 11. Are you kidding me? If you don't like Landry Jones, that's fine. I happen to think he's a solid backup, as do the Steelers. And the addition of Mason Rudolph makes the Steelers' depth potentially even more solid. Certainly more than Rush and White or an over-the-hill Schaub or a never-will-be Savage. Austin Davis? Geno Smith? C'mon, man. Graziano's reasoning for having the Steelers so low is because, according to him, this is the "first offseason in recent memory in which he didn't indicate at least some inclination toward retirement." Really? Roethlisberger has only talked about retirement after one season — 2016 — so Graziano must have a short memory. The Steelers feel really good about their QB situation. — Dale Lolley
• Talks between the Steelers and Le'Veon Bell's representatives have still not resumed, but should do so as soon as the team gets its draft picks signed. That doesn't take as long as it used to since draft pick salaries are now slotted, though there is some language and bonus stuff that can be tinkered with. At this point, only Terrell Edmunds, Rudolph and Chuks Okorafor still remain unsigned. — Lolley
• With the emergence of Steelers investor David Tepper as the new owner of the Carolina Panthers, pending approval by the league's other owners next week in Atlanta, expect the Carolina-Pittsburgh preseason series to continue. The Rooney family had a good relationship with soon-to-be-former Carolina owner Jerry Richardson, which allowed for the two teams to play nearly every preseason since the Panthers came into existence in 1995. As for Tepper's investment in the Steelers, he'll be forced to offer his 5 percent share of the team back to the Rooney family. And no, Tepper won't be raiding the Steelers' front office. Carolina already has solid football leadership in place. — Lolley
• As an aside, in 2001, the NFL still had conference championship parties the night before its championship games were played in the host cities. The party that year was at the William Penn Hotel and I took my wife. We got onto the elevator to go to the ballroom and on stepped two other couples, Richardson and his wife and Robert Kraft and his wife. After they exited, I told my wife, who had no idea who either were, if that elevator had crashed, we would have been footnotes in league history. — Lolley
PENGUINS
• Mike Sullivan's wonderfully written Players' Tribune-style — hey, an autograph at the end! — open letter to Pittsburgh and Penguins fans was well-received by a fan base still coping with the team's second-round exit. Thanks and appreciation stuff aside, let's parse the coach's words a little further. In it he wrote "Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel are both coming off terrific seasons. Having Sid and Geno, plus a healthy Derick Brassard allows the strength of our team to remain down the middle." OK, a couple things of substance there. The first is that Kessel is "coming off" a terrific season which — to me — would imply that, indeed, the star right wing is returning in 2018-19. Whatever perceived disconnect there is between coach and player just might not be there. So, there goes that Kessel trade rumor. The other part, of course, is about how the Penguins' strength will "remain down the middle." That shoots a few holes in the concept of Brassard moving up to a top-six role at the wing. That could still happen, same with Kessel being dealt, but that's not the plan to start. — Chris Bradford
• In Sullivan's letter, the only center of note not mentioned — sorry, Carter Rowney — was Riley Sheahan. Obviously, Sullivan wasn't going to write chapter and verse about every player on the roster but Sheahan, a player with a first-round pedigree, certainly qualifies as part of the strength down the middle. Like Brassard, Sheahan is blocked by Sidney Crosby and Malkin from a top-six role. Unlike Brassard, Sheahan is a true bottom-six center and one who's a restricted free agent. He will be in line to make more than the $2.075 million cap hit he made in 2017-18 in the final season of a two-year, $4.15 million contract signed with Detroit. Malkin ($9.5 million cap hit in 2018-19) and Crosby ($8.7 million) are scheduled to be the fifth- and sixth-highest paid centers next season. The Oilers — Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — are the only other team to have two of the 10 highest-paid centers. Vegas — still can't believe this one — is picking up 40 percent of Brassard's $5 million cap hit. That still leaves the Penguins spending $21.2 million on three centers or nearly one-third of their payroll (based on a projected $80 million ceiling) on one position. And that's before a deal for Sheahan gets done. — Bradford
• He doesn't have quite the name recognition as Drew Rosenhaus, Scott Boras or some agents in other sports but, in hockey circles, Pat Brisson is a rock star. Interestingly, Brisson represents three-quarters of the Penguins' centers: Crosby, Brassard and Sheahan. Malkin's agent is J.P. Barry, who is also part of the CAA Sports, LLC agency. — Bradford
• As you watch the compelling Vegas-Winnipeg Western Conference Final unfold, keep in mind the Penguins' role in that series besides, obviously, Marc-Andre Fleury. At the Feb. 23 trade deadline, the Golden Knights were so afraid of Brassard landing with the Jets they agreed to pay that 40 percent of his contract in Pittsburgh. George McPhee has done a lot of things right and should be a shoo-in for NHL executive of the year, but the Knights still have to get through the Jets. Even without Brassard. — Bradford
PITT
• As the ACC spring meetings ended on Amelia Island, Fla., word came out that ACC men’s basketball coaches will propose legislation to expand the NCAA Tournament from 68 to 72 teams. According to commissioner John Swofford, on-court rule changes the league intends to propose are moving back the 3-point line, widening the lane and resetting the shot clock to 20 seconds after an offensive rebound — all rule changes that would bring the NCAA closer to FIBA’s international rules. The moves aren’t unusual for the ACC, a conference that long has been an innovator. In the early '80s, it was one of the first leagues to adopt a 3-point line for conference play before the NCAA introduced the national rule in 1986. — Matt Grubba
• Jeff Capel also spent part of his week at the meetings, where he was a popular interview for media from North Carolina — his home state and where he played and worked at Duke. In front of the cameras in Florida, he opened up a little more about his thought process before taking the Pitt job: “That was the only reservation that I had — did I have the energy to do it? … I was exhausted. The job has energized me. Once I made the decision that this was something I was going to do, I felt an amazing amount of energy,” he said. — Grubba
• As predicted on our Pitt Show podcast on DK Sports Radio, Pat Narduzzi did assign one of his two available 2018 scholarships to a walk-on player, sophomore long snapper Cal Adomitis. A Pittsburgh Central Catholic grad, Adomitis played every game of his freshman year. And given the close-knit nature of special teamers, it’s no surprise the first person on Twitter to congratulate him was former Pitt and newly-signed Chicago Bears punter Ryan Winslow. — Grubba
