The Twins' Struggles Against Southpaws Aren't a Mirage

[Cody Pirkl]

Image courtesy of © Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

The Twins’ endless pursuit of left-handed corner outfielders has been well covered. The many poor-fitting pieces of the lineup have, as well. They're seeing the results of their lopsided roster construction to begin the season, and turning the corner feels unlikely.

The Twins have mustered very little fight against left-handed pitchers, scoring two runs in 16 2/3 innings against them. In looking at the lineup they throw out in these matchups, you might feel like they should be able to at least hold their own. They're able to fill out most of the batting order with right-handed hitters. That may not be enough to save them, though.

 

To be fair, we have yet to see several expected contributors pitch in much in this small sample to begin the season. Byron Buxton has yet to pick up a hit against left-handed pitching, and we're waiting for Luke Keaschall and Ryan Jeffers to take off. The Twins are surely counting on these players to carry the lineup. So far, Austin Martin has held his own in the leadoff spot when called upon, but the lineup has missed some expected production that's sure to show up at some point.

 

Unfortunately, even as those names come around, it's hard to expect this lineup to perform against lefties. They're simply lacking in players to counter those matchups. Not only do they have too many left-handed hitters on the roster, but too many of the right-handed bats they have to rely on also aren't a big help.

Brooks Lee has been better against left-handed pitching so far in his career, but that consists of just a .647 OPS. Josh Bell hasn't produced at an above-average clip against lefties since 2023, and posted a .552 OPS against them last season. Victor Caratini was slightly above average against them in 2025, but has a .672 mark against southpaws in his career. These three are going to be regulars on days with a left-handed starter on the mound, along with at least one left-handed hitter. This is the best the Twins have to offer. Their bench doesn’t have any other right-handed hitters to shuffle into the mix if these players continue to struggle, as we would expect them to.

 

In short, there's no reason to expect this lineup to right the ship against left-handed pitching. They won’t be as bad as they’ve been in this small sample, but they’ll continue to struggle significantly. The falloff in the lineup is quick and precipitous, and will likely kill many of the rallies the top of the lineup doesn't finish. Even among the few bats the Twins chose to bring in this offseason who can hit right-handed, they did a poor job of adding impact from that side of the plate.

It's yet another strike against the way the Twins chose to build their roster in 2026. Their emphasis on acquiring and retaining as many left-handed bats as possible left them with few roster spots to allocate to countering left-handed pitching. They filled those spots with bats that are technically capable of hitting right-handed, but are highly unlikely to be the impact contributors this lineup needs against lefties.

 

From ace starting pitchers to marginal relievers, it's safe to expect the Twins to struggle mightily for all of the 2026 season against southpaws, and teams will continue to turn to them as often as they possibly can. If that's the case, it won't be because of underperformance or unexpected struggles. It will be because that's exactly what you'd expect from the roster they put together.

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[Drtwins]

How many articles can be written discussing the twins having too many left hand batters. They have had 8 of the 9 batters hitting from the right side. They have incredible balance of right vs left (50/50) handed on the 26 man and 2 of the 5 outfielders are rh. If anything they should be more left handed with over 70% of pitchers being right handed. The problem is the players they have aren’t that good, stop blaming it on what side they hit.

[Vanimal46]

Fun fact, the Twins offense was better against LH pitching than RH pitching in 2025. .704 OPS against lefties vs. .690 OPS against righties. 

We need better players. Full stop 

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

Fun fact, the Twins offense was better against LH pitching than RH pitching in 2025. .704 OPS against lefties vs. .690 OPS against righties. 

We need better players. Full stop 

This belongs in the "No Fun With Numbers" thread.  😁 Their mark against lefties was exactly average across the majors (.704), and most teams hit better against righties (.725), but not our Twins!  Better results, better players, I don't really care - we just need BETTER.  League average or worse gets us nowhere.

[Cody Pirkl]

2 hours ago, Drtwins said:

How many articles can be written discussing the twins having too many left hand batters. They have had 8 of the 9 batters hitting from the right side. They have incredible balance of right vs left (50/50) handed on the 26 man and 2 of the 5 outfielders are rh. If anything they should be more left handed with over 70% of pitchers being right handed. The problem is the players they have aren’t that good, stop blaming it on what side they hit.

I've definitely harped on their mess of LHHs, I just found myself looking at the lineup against LHPs saying to myself "this isn't so bad". Thought it was important to point out that some of those players that can hit right-handed, particularly the ones they targeted this offseason, may potentially be as bad as sending out LHHs. 

Seeing a lineup with 8 RHHs against a LHP should be encouraging. Unfortunately for the Twins, they've put together a lineup that will stink in those matchups regardless.

[Vanimal46]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

This belongs in the "No Fun With Numbers" thread.  😁 Their mark against lefties was exactly average across the majors (.704), and most teams hit better against righties (.725), but not our Twins!  Better results, better players, I don't really care - we just need BETTER.  League average or worse gets us nowhere.

I haven't dug too deep into the why yet, but my first two assumptions are spot on so far... 

Brooks Lee in 2025: .220/.278/.365 slash against RH pitching over 349 PA - .676 OPS against LH in 178 PA - a 33 point difference

Royce Lewis in 2025: .236/.278/.386 slash against RH pitching over 284 PA - .689 OPS against LH in 119 PA - a 25 point difference

Edit: Ryan Jeffers split difference is wild... 885 OPS against LH pitching, .693 OPS against RH pitching

[ashbury]

18 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

I haven't dug too deep into the why yet, but my first two assumptions are spot on so far... 

Brooks Lee in 2025: .220/.278/.365 slash against RH pitching over 349 PA - .676 OPS against LH in 178 PA - a 33 point difference

Royce Lewis in 2025: .236/.278/.386 slash against RH pitching over 284 PA - .689 OPS against LH in 119 PA - a 25 point difference

Edit: Ryan Jeffers split difference is wild... 885 OPS against LH pitching, .693 OPS against RH pitching

I'd start the analysis at the team level:

RHP vs RHB: .721 OPS, 2298 PA

RHP vs LHB: .694, 2064

LHP vs RHB: .738, 1262

LHP vs LHB: .611, 435

So at a macro level, our lefty batters were putrid against lefty pitchers, but they faced them so infrequently that it didn't drag down the overall numbers by much.  Rocco might call this vindication for the platooning strategy.  (In truth most MLB teams had a relative handful of L-L matchups last season, the Twins only a little bit off the norm.)

The problem is that those lefty mashers didn't mash when facing right-handed pitching either.  The hitters standing on that side of the plate didn't hit anybody, left or right.

Which hitters from the left side got the least benefit against RHP?  Brooks Lee is way up there, as you note, and the problem wasn't solely his .643 OPS but that the 349 plate appearances he consumed doing it was second on the team in these "favorable" matchups, meaning that the weighted effect on the team was magnified.  But it was a team effort: Outman, Gasper, Julien, Keirsey, Roden, every one of those that the team rolled out there trying to do damage against righthanders did WORSE than Lee's anemic showing, and they combined for 400 PA.  Ahead of Lee, Willi Castro was marginally better at .703 while he was here, but that's still below the majors average of .743 for the prized matchup.  Our bat-first outfielders Larnach and Wallner were a rather "meh" .759 and .771 respectively.  Only Cody Klemens with .797 acquitted himself since he allegedly brings some defense to his game as well.  (And second-prize winner in the James Outman Lookalike Contest, Ryan Fitzgerald, logged .828 in very short duty.)

There were problems elsewhere in the lineup, but the single biggest place to try for improvement is the "simple" art of finding guys from the left side who can clobber right handed pitchers - we were 28th of 30.

[Whitey333]

Seems to me that we just don't have nearly enough good players on this very poorly constructed roster.

[twinfan]

It's normal that RH batters hit better against LH pitchers but I am much more worried about the Twins (lack of a) bullpen right now. The relief pitchers we have are awful and won't get any better. Can anyone throw heaters? Does anyone have lock down stuff? Other teams have no-names who come up and shut teams down. We don't. And we passed on veterans like Luke Weaver and Tommie Kahnle who can do just that. So it won't matter if we score 2 or 3 or 8 runs in a game. We won't win.

And so far I am not impressed with Josh Bell. He is a free swinger at best who probably won't do much except keep a prospect down on the farm. Maybe someone will want him at the deadline or sooner but it's doubtful.

It looks like my prediction of the Twins winning 76 games (in the USA's 250th year) will (sadly) probably come true.

[jorgenswest]

I think it would help to use more left handed hitters against a left handed pitcher. I think it can knock the pitcher off rhythm just like a pitcher can get knocked off rhythm when a runner gets on base. I would start more than one left handed hitter and space them apart. I also think that lineup construction makes it more difficult for the other team to manage middle of the game bullpen moves.

 

[Jim H]

The real take away here, is that the Twins struggled against all pitching last year. Changing the back end of the lineup probably won't change things much. Either the almost established youngish vets will improve, or they won't. We are all hoping the next wave of prospects will change this, eventually.

 

[Larry Janisewski]

18 hours ago, ashbury said:

This belongs in the "No Fun With Numbers" thread.  😁 Their mark against lefties was exactly average across the majors (.704), and most teams hit better against righties (.725), but not our Twins!  Better results, better players, I don't really care - we just need BETTER.  League average or worse gets us nowhere.

The Twins are running out basically the same lineup as last year with about the same result: they can't hit!!!

[Dawgzilla]

How bout struggles against right-handers?!  Team stinks!  Putrid garbage!  They should pay us to watch on TV or go to a home game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Get the drift!!!🤡s=Twins front office and ownership!  Do they actually think we are that gullible?!