Pirates GM: We haven't even had a conversation about demoting Polanco

The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to have faith in Gregory Polanco despite the youngster's continued struggles at the plate this season. In fact, the possibility of sending him down to Triple-A hasn't really occured to general manager Neal Huntington.

“We believe Gregory Polanco is going to be a quality major league player but there are growing pains. There is an evolution for a young player,” Huntington told Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “And (a demotion for him) hasn’t even been a conversation.”

Polanco, who signed with the Pirates in 2009, arrived in the major leagues to considerable fanfare last June after emerging as one of baseball's top prospects. His first tour of the big leagues, however, wasn't as fruitful as the organization hoped, as Polanco hit .235/.307/.343 through 89 games, albeit with seven homers and 14 stolen bases in 19 tries.

Through the first half of the 2015 campaign, however, Polanco has yet to make good on the promise he showed intermittently last summer. The 23-year-old is striking out more often and walking less frequently than he did in 2014 while hitting for negligible power.

After adjusting for league- and park effects, he's doing less at the plate than all but 16 of baseball's 164 qualified hitters. Still, Polanco has appeared in all but four of Pittsburgh's games thus far.

Polanco, who hasn't hit a home run since May 31, will head into Monday's series opener against the San Diego Padres eager to snap an 0-for-12 stretch at the plate.