Swapping Kirilloff for Martin Magnifies Minnesota's Matchup Problems

It's hard to argue with the decision to demote Alex Kirilloff to the minors, in a vacuum. His latest performance -- 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in a one-run loss to the Rockies on Tuesday -- punctuated a lengthy slump that saw him slash .143/.221/.325 with six extra-base hits since the start of May. 

It's also hard to argue with the decision to promote Austin Martin as a corresponding move, in a vacuum. Martin has been an on-base machine since returning to Triple-A, posting a .449 OBP with 18 walks in 78 plate appearances. That's the kind of discipline and consistency Minnesota's lineup could use.

The problem with swapping out Kirilloff for Martin, nine days after demoting Edouard Julien to make room for Royce Lewis, is that it further skews the problematic balance of lefty/righty bats on this roster, which has already been forced to make do without Matt Wallner, who was expected to be a key threat versus right-handed pitchers.

Manager Rocco Baldelli will now be hard-pressed to fill out an optimized lineup against righties, who have been a critical pain point for the Twins offense. Minnesota has actually performed quite well against lefties, slashing .266/.312/.429 in 631 plate appearances against them, with Wednesday's ambush of Colorado southpaw Austin Gomber serving as the latest success story. 

Against righties, the Twins have been significantly worse, slashing .227/.307/.394 for an OPS that is 40 points lower. That is an issue, of course, because right-handed pitchers are far more prevalent: 75% of Minnesota's total PAs have come against RHP, which is pretty standard.

Replacing Kirilloff and Julien with righty bats leaves the Twins with just two pure left-handed hitters on the roster: Max Kepler and Trevor Larnach. Kepler has of course been mired in a massive slump (.389 OPS in his past 18 games) and Larnach always seems at risk of falling into one. Beyond them, you have a switch-hitter in Carlos Santana, who has been better against lefties than righties this year and in his career, and another in Willi Castro, for whom the same applies. 

From there, it's all righties. For now, that might not feel like such a bad thing -- Twins RH batters have a respectable .715 OPS against RH pitchers, which is 9% better than the league average -- but you have to wonder how that's going to hold up if Baldelli is forced to write in the names of Martin, Jose Miranda, Manuel Margot and Kyle Farmer against righty starters too frequently. 

Here's what the three demoted lefty hitters did against right-handed pitching last year, and what the Twins are missing:

• Julien: .274/.401/.497 (360 PA)
• Kirilloff: .300/.373/.485 (263 PA)
• Wallner: .281/.409/.561 (208 PA)

Losing all that outstanding production is a pretty clear-cut prime culprit in the team's overall offensive woes. I'm not saying that keeping them around was necessarily going to be the solution, but stacking the entire roster with right-handed bats also doesn't seem to be it. In order to truly get their lagging lineup on track, it's imperative for the Twins to get at least one of these lefty bats back on the roster in functional form, and preferably two or all three. There is plenty more right-handed pitching ahead.