The Toronto Blue Jays find themselves in a peculiar situation heading into the 2023 All-Star break. As a whole, the club boasts a collective .260 average (eighth best) and a .744 OPS (11th-best) compared to other teams around the league but sits all the way down in 17th when it comes to home runs (96), a dramatic turn from a club that fans are used to seeing hit the ball over the outfield walls with frequency over the past few seasons.
While the RISP woes have been documented all season long, the Jays batters have had their fair share of struggles facing left-handed pitchers, with the club posting a .744 OPS and a .565 OPS from righty-batters and left-handed batters respectively heading into Wednesday night’s game. Furthermore, the Jays’ left-handed batters have yet to really drive the ball against southpaws, with just four extra-base hits on the year with six RBIs through 132 at-bats. While the club’s right-handed batters are faring better against left-handers, such as Matt Chapman and his .373 average or Bo Bichette and his 1.007 OPS, a larger majority are batting below the .250 mark, including Alejandro Kirk, George Springer, Danny Jansen, and Santiago Espinal (more regular players).
Split | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | BAbip |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
vs RHP | 86 | 2384 | 305 | 622 | 133 | 7 | 82 | 287 | 217 | 564 | .261 | .328 | .426 | .754 | .309 |
vs LHP | 54 | 567 | 78 | 145 | 26 | 1 | 14 | 75 | 56 | 120 | .256 | .323 | .379 | .703 | .298 |
vs RHP as RHB | 86 | 1653 | 217 | 447 | 91 | 2 | 53 | 208 | 134 | 341 | .270 | .332 | .424 | .756 | .312 |
vs RHP as LHB | 85 | 731 | 88 | 175 | 42 | 5 | 29 | 79 | 83 | 223 | .239 | .320 | .430 | .750 | .302 |
vs LHP as RHB | 52 | 435 | 72 | 115 | 23 | 0 | 14 | 69 | 43 | 80 | .264 | .331 | .414 | .744 | .291 |
vs LHP as LHB | 48 | 132 | 6 | 30 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 40 | .227 | .299 | .265 | .565 | .323 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Interestingly enough, the San Diego Padres recently designated veteran Nelson Cruz for assignment, which had fans across social media tweeting at their respective organizations about the opportunity. A righty-batter with over 464 career home runs, Cruz has struggled at times this season, seeing his average dip to .245 with an OPS hovering at .681 through 143 at-bats, while also adding five home runs and 23 RBIs for the Padres. As for facing left-handers, Cruz sports a .666 OPS through 83 at-bats while adding three home runs, so he isn’t exactly mashing lefties but his OPS stands higher than all the Jays I mentioned above minus Jansen (.689).Nothing screams 4th of July like family, food, baseball, and Jordan Luplow rocking a mustache and knocking in runs while doing so pic.twitter.com/Lcr168GYPd
— Buffalo Bisons (@BuffaloBisons) July 3, 2023
The one drawback is similar to Cruz, Luplow requires both a 40-man and an active roster spot. A roster spot could be made available if the Jays decided to option Ernie Clement back to Triple-A (or potentially Epsinal or Cavan Biggio but that seems less likely) but a 40-man roster spot gets a bit trickier, with the likely candidate being someone in the pitching corps like Thomas Hatch, Trent Thornton, or Jay Jackson, although all three pitchers did pitch well during their time in the Majors this year (again, small sample size). That question however does not need to be answered unless the Blue Jays do want to pursue promoting Luplow back to the big leagues, hoping that his power against left-handers will follow him back to the Majors. Is the move somewhat risky given there are other potential options out on the open market? Sure, but with the trade deadline approaching and roster spots likely being needed anyways for potential deals (as well as the return of Hyun Jin Ryu and Chad Green in the near future), giving Luplow a chance over the next couple of weeks could save the Jays some prospect capital to trade for pitching rather than a right-handed bat if he can find the power. That is if the former third-round pick can find a way to hit for power against big-league pitching again.
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