The Cincinnati Reds still can’t hit left-handed pitching

There is a train of thought that suggests that if your team either can’t – or won’t – go out and spend big on position players who can really hit, it can find a way to build a platoon to mimic said production. After all, players who can truly mash against both lefties and righties are few and far between, rarely reach free agency at all, and cost a pretty penny when they ever do.

Even approaching the ability to mash both handed pitching at all equally earns players a giant payday, as the right-handed swinging Teoscar Hernandez (.808 OPS vs. RHP, .931 OPS vs. LHP in 2024) showed just last winter. His price skyrocketed out of where the Reds traditionally spend (or don’t), and as the dust settled on the outfield bat market Cincinnati flopped over $5 million to sign Austin Hays and mostly called their day done.

The odd thing is, though, that as the Reds have eschewed chasing the big-ticket outfield bats of late, they’ve also opted against rounding out the short-side of the platoons they’d otherwise be, in theory, trying to create to replicate production. They’ve held tight to Jake Fraley and Will Benson, for instance, despite both being pretty clearly best designed to only face LHP at this point of their careers. They went out and got Gavin Lux despite an infield glut, though his bat, too, continues to look like it’s only worth putting in the lineup to face righties – and he’s been shoveled into the outfield mix regularly, too.

Meanwhile the likes of Stuart Fairchild and Nick Senzel, for various reasons, have been jettisoned from the organization altogether despite being two of the precious few Reds who’ve put together seasons of cromulent (or better!) production against southpaws.

The Reds as a whole have struggled against LHP for years now. Dating back to the start of the 2022 season, they own just a 92 wRC+ against southpaws, a mark that has only been worsted by five clubs (a list that predictably includes the Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins, and Chicago White Sox). Since the start of 2024 that number dips to a meager 82, worsted only by the Sox, Rockies, Marlins, and Kansas City Royals. While league-wide production against southpaws this year has fallen totally off a cliff, the Reds do technically rank tied for 20th against LHP by wRC+, though that number has still fallen down to just 78 so far in 2025.

Given that the infield options, when healthy are largely set, it’s the outfield where the frustration against southpaws becomes the hardest to sort out.

Hays, to his credit, came to the Reds as a player who probably was best suited to sit a bit more often against RHP and be a resident clubber of LHP, and he’s done that in an incredibly small sample this season (14 PA, 258 wRC+). Tyler Stephenson has stepped right into his role of mashing LHP since his return (15 PA, 244 wRC+). The other three Reds who actually have wRC+ above the league-average of 100, however, are Jake Fraley (in a meager 5 PA), Austin Wynns (who never plays anymore), and the inimitable Santiago Espinal (128 wRC+, thank god).

It’s enough to wonder just how the Reds would line up against a lefty starter if, in theory, they make it to August and are pushing for a playoff spot. Hays would occupy a corner outfield spot, for sure, but who else would they really want to have out there? The positionless Spencer Steer should theoretically be in another corner spot, but he’s been outmatched by lefties for a while now (35 wRC+ in 43 PA in 2025, 88 wRC+ in 172 PA in 2024).

Is it now canon that Espinal plays in left against lefties to keep his bat in the lineup? That would turn 3B over to the likes of Noelvi Marte (73 wRC+ in 26 PA in 2025, 61 wRC+ in 45 PA in 2024) or Jeimer Candelario (71 wRC+ in 24 PA in 2025, 80 wRC+ in 147 PA in 2024). Even if you assume the 2024 version of Marte was an aberration, it’s hard to simply bank on a massive turnaround for him in the second half of 2025 after he comes back from the oblique injury that shut him down in early May.

Is that guy Rece Hinds? He’s certainly hit LHP better than RHP throughout a lot of his minor league career, though his streakiness suggests he’s a guy who might only mash lefties better than righties if he’s playing every single day to be in form – sitting against righties only to face lefties here and there may not be the best route to get the most out of his powerful bat.

With Fairchild and Senzel long gone, the go-to option in CF has become TJ Friedl by default. Friedl, to his credit, has been just about as damn good as he could be overall in 2025 after an injury-riddled 2024, and as recently as 2023 actually hit lefties better (.962 OPS vs. .785 OPS) than righties. That did feature an absurdly high .425 BABIP against southpaws that season, however, and things have fallen back into a more typical platoon split for TJ in 2025 (64 wRC+ in 48 PA vs. LHP, 120 wRC+ in 151 PA vs. RHP).

The Reds did just swing a deal to pick up Connor Joe from the San Diego Padres, and he has carved out a decent career over the last half-dozen years while showing both patience and a proclivity to hit lefties a bit better than righties. That’s a good floor, in theory, though Joe has logged a grand total of 1 (one) PA so far against lefties despite infield/outfield positional versatility. Even at the highest possible end of expectations for him as a platoon partner, that’s hardly the greatest option out there.

Long story, I know, but it’s looking more and more like the Reds could stand to find a player out there somewhere who has made his name smashing lefties. That’s true even with a slew of right-handed bats on the IL who figure to make it back at some point soon in Marte, Candelario, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand because each of those guys are either infielders-only are shouldn’t put on a glove at all. The upper minors, this side of Sal Stewart, don’t really have a bat ready to take on that role, either, and Sal’s no outfielder by trade, too.

A classic lefty-mashing corner outfield option, that’s what could well help unlock this offense even further. It’s been a minute since they’ve had that prototype, after all.