Player A has a career OPS of .866 against left-handed pitching, and an .891 OPS versus lefties over the past three years.
If you want to open up the hood for a Baseball Savant dive, this player’s wOBA against lefties since 2020 is .370. We could go on, but you get the picture: He hits lefties.
Player B has a career OPS of .763 against left-handed pitching, and an .843 OPS versus lefties over the past three years. His wOBA against lefties since 2020 is .333.
Both players are on the Mets’ roster. Want to guess which one is far more likely to take at-bats at designated hitter this season?
That would be … Player B. For sure. But why?
Player A is Darin Ruf. He struggled mightily after the trade deadline last season, and gets booed a lot. Player B is Tommy Pham, a nice free agent signing who figures to help the team on both sides of the ball and in the clubhouse -- but doesn’t have quite the history against lefties that Ruf does.
