PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Almost all of us have been there. Your cell phone is dead and you know those few minutes you are unavailable something is going to happen. For the Pirates Josh Palacios it was the call to the Major Leagues.
The 27-year-old was out eating hibachi at the Mall of America yesterday when calls from the Pirates went to voicemail. They were finally able to determine who he was at dinner with and eventually he got the news he’s going to the big leagues for the third time in his career on his friend’s phone.
“We were making jokes like ‘hey, imagine they are calling me up right now and my phone is dead’,” Palacios said in the Pirates clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon. “It actually happened to be true.”
There is a good reason they were attempting to contact him. The left-hand hitting outfielder is on a 12-game hitting streak at AAA Indianapolis and overall hitting a crisp .434 with a .500 OBP with four doubles, a triple, four homers and 20 RBI in 13 games. He even stole three bases with an OPS of 1.274.
“There has been a couple of factors,” Palacios said of his hot start after being picked up in the minor league part of the Rule 5 Draft this offseason. “Definitely growth, started wearing contacts, shout out to all of the eye doctors out there.”
Seriously, they’ve been prescribed ‘for a little while’ and Palacios said they were uncomfortable. He said he started to wear them and it’s corresponded with his improved hitting.
“I had great hitting coaches here with the Pirates and a great system with Nunnally, Brady and Munson,” Palacios added. “They have taught me a few things and I’ve been able to grasp a little bit of an idea of what I should be looking at. What I should be swinging at and letting go of some pitches you can’t make hard contact with, that you can hit, but just soft contact. Sticking to that process and it’s working pretty good.”
“He went to AA and played well and went to AAA and played well,” said Pirates Manager Derek Shelton. “It’s like we talked about, if we have the opportunity and guys are playing well and we feel it’s going to help us, we are going to add him to the roster. He’s been that way. We added him and he’s there today.”
Shelton said they made the move for Tuesday because they liked the pitching matchup and wanted to get him right in the lineup. Palacios is not going to play every day, but it gives the Bucs platoon advantages. The Brooklyn native was twice drafted, the second time in the fourth round by the Blue Jays in 2016 out of Auburn. He got 49 plate appearances with the Nationals last year hitting .213 with a couple of doubles.
“I was hoping eventually I would be here,” Palacios said. “You never know in this game. I don’t have control of those things. I was just excited when the call did happen. Just trying to be as ready as possible when it did come.”
Now that ‘ready as possible’ also includes having a fully charged phone. Palacios said he might break down and buy a portable battery.