Southpaw Strategy

4-4-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Out of the gate this season, the Pirates have faced 7 straight right handed starting pitchers. Given that the 13-man position player pool consists of 6 who can hit left-handed, one would presume a fairly equal split on both sides of the plate.

Much of those lefties include the power threats of Oneil Cruz and Jack Suwinski but what is the strategy when they do have to face lefties this season?

Last year, the Pirates ranked 21st in wRC+ against LHP at 93, falling behind the offensive-deficient Mariners and Angels and just above divisional-rival Cardinals.

They didn’t make much of an attempt to improve in that regard this offseason. Adam Frazier batted .172 against lefties last year with a sub-.400 OPS over 31 plate appearances while Tommy Pham – a right-handed hitter, mind you – batted worse against lefties (.222) than righties (.256).

So what’s the plan, here?

Last season, only three Pirates posted a wRC+ of above 100 against LHP in a minimum of 40 plate appearances – and they did pretty great in those instances.

Given that Nick Gonzales is out of commission for the foreseeable future, we really only have two bats that fit this criteria.

Bart Darts

Joey Bart clubbed 5 of his 12 home runs last season against lefties while posting a ridiculous .996 OPS.

That said, he has a very short track record of limited success, has struggled early on this season and even against lefties where he appears to be at an advantage, he struck out at a higher rate than against righties (29.7% compared to 24.5%) and a lower walk rate (6.8% against 8.2%).

That’s not to say Bart won’t be one of the key pieces against lefties but I don’t think we can push all our chips in here.

Kelieve

Hayes, on the other hand, has a longer record of success to draw from here with 575 plate appearances against lefties and a cumulative .819 OPS in that time.

Across the board, Ke clearly excels with some clear splits as he is better across the board when facing southpaws.

There are not many scenarios where Hayes should be hitting near the top of the lineup as he still works to prove the 2020 success was more than a blip on the radar but expect them to try getting him as many ABs as possible in these matchups.

The New Guy?

New acquisition, Alexander Canario, has limited MLB experience but has excelled against lefties with 5 hits in 14 career at-bats but also crushed them in AAA last season with a .286/.364/.597 line.

Additionally, Canario has pop in his bat that the team desperately needs with 18 minor league home runs over only 283 plate appearances in 2024.

As of this writing, we haven’t even seen Canario don the black and gold but, given the potential upside in the splits, I imagine this would be a niche for the recent pickup.

Ahead of their first southpaw opposing pitcher today, keep an eye on these three to hopefully impact the game – because the rest of this lineup sure won’t.