Former Kernel Polanco makes big league debut

Exactly one year ago, Jorge Polanco went 1-for-4 with a double and RBI to help the Cedar Rapids Kernels to a 6-2 win over Peoria. Thursday, he made his major league debut.

That's quite a jump.

The 20-year-old infielder became the first Kernel since the club's partnership with the Minnesota Twins to make it to the bigs, walking on four pitches and scoring a run in a ninth-inning pinch-hitting appearance in Minnesota's 6-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.

Polanco was surprisingly recalled from high-Class A Fort Myers earlier in the day because of an injury to regular shortstop Danny Santana in a game Wednesday night. He was added to the Twins' 40-man major league roster this past offseason because he originally signed as a 16-year-old in 2009 and the club could have lost him to another organization in the Rule 5 Draft.

'He's a little loose defensively, but he has some really good skills,” Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters before Thursday's game. 'Tom Kelly, I remember him saying he really, really likes him. The way he goes about it, he likes watching him play.”

Polanco hit .308 with 78 RBIs in 115 games last season for the Kernels. He was hitting .289 with 35 RBIs in 72 games this season for Fort Myers.

'He can swing it,” Gardenhire said. 'We're lucky we have him on the roster and he's available to us. If I have to play him, I'll play him. I'm not afraid to put him in there.”