Gregory Polanco plans to play winter baseball in his native Dominican Republic, and the Pittsburgh Pirates are as excited as their veteran right fielder was when he came up with the idea.

Ben Cherington called it “encouraging” that Polanco came to the Pirates with the plan, sharing it with the general manager and manager Derek Shelton in his 2020 season exit interview in late September.

“He was really excited about playing this winter. That made us excited, because not everybody who has been established as a major leaguer and is earning the kind of money he’s making is always going to want to do that,” Cherington said Monday on a conference call with reporters. “But I think it speaks to Gregory’s desire and commitment to get better — and probably awareness also that there are things he’s got to find and improve on. He was really excited about the prospect of playing a little bit more, getting some more at-bats. We’re very supportive of it.”

Polanco, 28, enters the final year of his five-year, $35-million contract that will pay him a guaranteed $11.6 million in 2021. He missed two weeks of summer camp after testing positive for covid-19 and returned to hit .153 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs in 50 games. His timing was off as he had 65 strikeouts in 174 plate appearances (37.4%).

Polanco is expected to play for Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Professional Baseball League, according to MLB.com. He hasn’t played winter ball since 2013-14, before he made his major league debut.

Cherington said other Pirates players could join Polanco in playing winter ball, noting shortstops Erik Gonzalez and Oneil Cruz and pitchers Michael Feliz and Richard Rodriguez. Cherington cautioned that “we’d want to be careful with innings there” when it comes to the pitchers. Gonzalez was injured in winter ball last year when a foul ball fractured his foot.

“Again, with the caveat that baseball anywhere in 2020 is always a day-to-day proposition, we hope that it happens in the DR,” Cherington said, adding that he would “expect that particularly native players, if those leagues are playing, would get a chance to participate.”

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