With Jordan Westburg, Tyler O’Neill and Gary Sánchez set to return soon, Baltimore will hope to reset a team that is historically bad against lefties.
After building a bunch of positive momentum in sweeps of the White Sox and Mariners, the Orioles’ biggest nemesis—left-handed pitching—reared its ugly head again this past weekend in Oakland. It’s never great when you drop two out of three games to a team that came into the series 9-25 since the beginning of May. However, the Orioles’ continual struggles against lefties are a far bigger reason for concern, which was only emphasized by their series loss in Sacramento.
The O’s aren’t just bad against LHPs this year, they’re historically bad. As Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer pointed out after Sunday’s loss, the Orioles’ lineups against lefties are performing so poorly that they make almost every opposing lefty they face put up Cy Young numbers.
If you look at teams’ splits vs. lefties, the Orioles are barely above the Rockies in average and wRC+ and dead last in slugging percentage. Baltimore right-handed bats vs. left-handed pitching rank last in average, slugging, OPS, and wOBA—meaning the guys primarily tasked with attacking LHPs are this roster’s biggest disappointments.
The qualifier for this group is that, like most of the Orioles roster, it’s been severely depleted by injuries. Tyler O’Neill and Gary Sánchez, who were both signed to be key contributors against lefties, have combined for 110 ABs so far. Ramón Laureano has so far put up reverse splits, hitting 72 points lower against lefties than righties. All of this while Jordan Westburg, the Orioles’ best right-handed hitter, has been on the injured list since April 28th with a bum hamstring.
The O’s should start to get good news on the injury front soon. There is plenty of speculation that Westburg (who’s hit .393 with a 1.202 OPS in eight rehab games at Norfolk) will be activated tonight when the O’s welcome the Tigers to Camden Yards. O’Neill and Sánchez are also rehabbing at Norfolk and could rejoin the big league club later this month, perhaps as early as this weekend’s series against the Angels.
However, if those reinforcements are actually going to matter, they’ll have to hit like the players the Orioles expect them to be. O’Neill and Sánchez were expected to be big upgrades on players like Anthony Santander and James McCann in matchups against left-handed pitchers. Instead, the pair is a combined 2-for-44 against lefties this season and are arguably the two worst performers against southpaws on the entire roster.
O’Neill was one of the best hitters in all of baseball last year vs. lefties, hitting .313 with a 1.179 OPS and 16 HRs. Given his slow start and time on the IL, expecting him to soar back to those lofty heights against LHPs is probably unreasonable. However, the O’s will need him to get close to his career lefty splits of .261/.366/.524 if he’s going to help resurrect this team’s wilted lineup against lefties.
Realistically, Sánchez is only on this roster because of his career .466 slugging percentage against lefties. If The Kraken can’t even crack the Mendoza line, especially against lefties, Mike Elias & Co. may choose to cut their losses and eat the remainder of the $8.5M they owe Sánchez. The facts that Maverick Handley has proven himself to be a capable backup catcher (at least defensively) and Samuel Basallo is mashing his way toward a call-up make Sánchez all the more expendable.
Westburg should plug back into the top of the lineup against lefties, and Tony Mansolino will have to juggle how he, Ramón Urías and Coby Mayo split time between 3B, 1B and DH. With Westburg, Urías and a resurgent Adley Rutschman, the Orioles have the foundation for at least an average offense vs. lefties. Getting contributions from O’Neill and Sánchez should elevate the offense enough to where the O’s can actually make a real push for a Wild Card spot.
Mansolino may also just need to rid himself of the Hydesian notion that facing lefties means you need a different lineup than facing righties. Jackson Holliday, Ryan O’Hearn and Cedric Mullins—players Hyde used to only play vs. RHPs—have all shown themselves more than capable of handling themselves in left-on-left matchups.
Mullins and O’Hearn rank second and third on the team with .295 and .282 averages vs. lefties and Mullins has actually been better against southpaws than right-handers. The answer to preventing these Orioles from being the worst hitting team all-time vs. LHPs may just be playing your best players all the time.
The O’s will need some type of response, and fast, if they truly want to chase a playoff spot. In the month of June alone, they’re likely to square off with lefties like reigning Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, the Angels’ Yusei Kikuchi and Tyler Anderson, the Yankees’ Max Fried and Carlos Rodon, and the Rangers’ Patrick Corbin.
The way the Orioles are currently playing against left-handed starters, they’ll be lucky to get more than one win from those matchups. However, given that the Orioles need to go 21-9 in their next 30 games to get to the All-Star break at .500, they can no longer afford to completely punt the game every time they face a lefty. The hope is that, with these reinforcements set to rejoin the Orioles, Baltimore can stop this historically bad run.