SAN FRANCISCO _ The Pirates' strength and conditioning staff is re-evaluating Gregory Polanco's offseason training regimen in light of his second trip to the 10-day disabled list because of a strained hamstring.
"First and foremost we want to get him back for this season and hopefully through a run in November," head athletic trainer Todd Tomczyk said. "The second goal is, we need to dig deeper and look inside Gregory and retrain or reframe his training in the offseason. That's something that we've already started to have conversations with the performance team, with Gregory and the coaching staff. This is a two-step process."
Polanco's left hamstring also bothered him last season. He strained it this May and missed the minimum 10 days but did so again last weekend in Colorado against the Rockies.
"With Colorado, the most recent hiccup with his hamstring, we all as a team felt, why push him through this at this point in time?" Tomczyk said. "However, Gregory wanted to. He wanted to continue to play, he wanted to continue to push through it. We decided to take a little pause and hopefully get him back out there sooner than later."
Polanco is currently hitting, throwing and riding an exercise bike, but he has not resumed running. He is eligible to come off the disabled list Tuesday.
"It's a little more refreshing when the DL's 10 days rather than (15)," manager Clint Hurdle said. "We're potentially a week away from bringing him back, but we'll see."
The Pirates could take a similar approach with another young outfielder. Top prospect Austin Meadows is rehabilitating a strained right hamstring in Bradenton, Fla. He injured his left hamstring and missed three months of the 2014 season and has also missed time because of an oblique strain.
"Both of those players, I don't want to speak for them, I know they're frustrated," Tomczyk said. "They want to get out there, they want to play. They don't want to be injured, they don't want to continue to have to go in the training room. We as a performance team need to figure out different ways to train them to prevent these injuries. It's on us a performance team just as much as it is the player."
Meadows is hitting, running and throwing and should be ready for rehab games next week.
