The Pirates and right fielder Gregory Polanco are nearing an agreement on a five-year contract extension with two club option years, according to a source.
Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan first reported the extension.
Terms of the agreement were not known. The Pirates had tried to lock up Polanco with a long-term contract for each of the previous two springs.
Yahoo reported that the contract begins in 2017, meaning Polanco would be under team control through 2023 if the Pirates exercised both options. The Pirates control left fielder Starling Marte through 2021, and center fielder Andrew McCutchen through 2018.
In recent years, general manager Neal Huntington and his staff have attempted to sign certain players to extensions in the name of cost certainty. They signed McCutchen to an extension before the 2012 season, Marte before the ’14 season and Josh Harrison at the beginning of the 2015 season.
Polanco has less than two years of major league service time. He would not have been eligible for salary arbitration until after the 2017 season.
The 24-year-old Polanco hit .256 with a .320 on-base percentage and a .381 slugging percentage in 652 plate appearances in 2015. He hit nine home runs and stole 27 bases.
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: April 4, 2016, 1:47 a.m.
