If Polanco is here, he should play

Jorge Polanco drills a two-run triple in the
ninth inning Friday for his first major league hit.

Jorge Polanco is in the majors because Trevor Plouffe, Eduardo Nunez and Danny Santana are injured.

He's not in the lineup because ... ?

Apparently because Pedro Florimon and his .093 batting average have some sort of squatters rights.

This is a temporary situation. Plouffe and Nunez remain on the DL, but both will likely be reinstated when the Twins return home on Monday. (Santana was placed on the disabled list Friday with a bone bruise in his knee; Yohan Pino, who never left the club after being officially optioned out Thursday to make room for Polanco, has been reinstated.)

When Plouffe and Nunez return, I assume it will be at the expense of Polanco and Florimon.

Which is fine. Neither Polanco nor Florimon really belongs in the majors. Polanco should be in A ball, and Florimon ... I don't know what level he belongs at, but it ain't the bigs.

I heard Ron Gardenhire on the radio pregame say he didn't intend to start Polanco this weekend, that it wouldn't be fair to the kid. I take Gardy's meaning as: He'll get carved up by major league pitching, and he didn't look good in the field during spring training.

Polanco is, without question, raw. But I cannot see how he could be more inept at the plate than Florimon is, and he has supposedly stabilized in the field after several months of playing shortstop at Fort Myers.

Polanco has come off the bench for three plate appearances in two games since his callup, and he's gotten a triple and a walk, scored a run and driven in two. We may wait a very long time for Florimon to do any of those things.

Neither Polanco nor Florimon are the present. But Polanco might be part of the future, and Florimon should not be. If Polanco is on the big league roster, he should play.