Raise your hand if you know which three major league hitters had the most success against left-handed pitching last season. The first two names – Boston’s J.D. Martinez (242 wRC+) and Houston’s Alex Bregman (205) – don’t come as any kind of surprise. Everybody knows they’re elite offensive players. The same is not true of the third-place finisher, Indians outfielder Jordan Luplow, who put up a jaw-dropping 198 wRC+ and slashed .320/.439/.742 in 155 plate appearances versus southpaws. Nobody could have seen that coming when the Indians made a fairly under-the-radar trade for him before last year.
Heading into the 2018-19 offseason, Luplow was a Pirate who, in limited big league opportunities, didn’t produce much. At that point, the former third-round pick was the owner of a dismal .194/.274/.371 line (72 wRC+) in 190 trips to the plate. Unimpressed, Pittsburgh sent him to Cleveland in a deal that has gone the Indians’ way so far.
In exchange for Luplow and infielder Max Moroff, the Indians gave up infielder Erik Gonzalez and a couple minor league right-handers in Dante Mendoza and Tahnaj Thomas. Like Luplow, Gonzalez had been a replacement-level player and a non-threat at the plate in the majors when the trade occurred. Still, then-Pirates general manager Neal Huntington was happy to bring him aboard.
“Erik Gonzalez is an athletic middle infielder who plays solid defense and has the potential to be a productive hitter at the major league level,” said Huntington. “He gives us another quality option to play shortstop or in the middle of our infield this year and into the future.”
Gonzalez fell flat in Year 1 as a Pirate, though, as he batted an ugly .254/.301/.317 (59 wRC+) in 156 PA during an injury-shortened campaign. He’s 28 and controllable through 2022, so it’s too soon to throw dirt on Gonzalez’s career, but it’s not looking good so far. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old Mendoza has struggled in the minors, where he logged a 5.82 ERA/6.06 FIP across 43 1/3 innings in rookie ball last season. If there’s a silver lining to this trade for the Pirates so far, it’s that they got a solid prospect in Thomas, 20. Formerly an infielder, Thomas ranks as FanGraphs’ No. 5 Pirates farmhand. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote of Thomas two months ago, “He may be the most anonymous 100 mph arm in baseball.”
Perhaps Thomas will one day go down as a player who got away for Cleveland. For now, the team’s benefiting from the deal at the MLB level, though it’s already out one-half of its return in Moroff. He was a non-factor in the bigs last year and is now a member of the Mets organization. And, of course, Luplow doesn’t come without question marks at the plate. The righty amassed 106 PA versus same-handed pitchers in 2019, hit just one of his 15 home runs off them and could only muster a .216/.274/.299 line with a wRC+ of 48. Those are in line with the numbers he posted against right-handers in previous seasons.
Despite his shortcomings, the inexpensive Luplow has already given the Indians a substantial amount of bang for their buck. As a 2.2-fWAR performed last year, FanGraphs valued his output at $17.6MM. At the very least, the Indians appear to have found a nice platoon hitter in Luplow — one who has experience at all three outfield positions. The fact that he’s still just 26 and controllable for five more years (including two pre-arbitration seasons) only adds to his appeal from the low-budget Indians’ perspective.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Interesting piece on a guy I had heard of but really knew very little about. I wonder what’s behind his great performance vs. LHP. I’m sure he will regress against lefties but maybe we’re seeing the beginning of a breakout
Haha seems like every player the pirates trade away get really good when they leave. Poor pirates.
Jordon is hardly “good” or even better than when he was in a Pirates uniform. I watched him play in my local town in his first pro debut after being drafted. I went to several games and he would crush lefties then. But when a righty on the mound, you never knew if it’s a weak grounder or a strike out from Jordan. It was really a hit and miss. A lot of his hard hit balls in play were off of lefties. He hit one ball off a lefty so hard, it cracked the wall in left center. They had to patch the wood frame of the wall. It was always weak contact against righties if he wasn’t getting “plucked”.
“Jordon is hardly “good” or even better than when he was in a Pirates uniform.”
.644 OPS in two years with the Pirates, worse against lefties than right-handers his 1st year, then took a step backward in year 2. A .923 overall OPS last season, fueled by a .474 spike against lefties, while his performance against RH remained steady (bad). Good is certainly premature, but “better than when he was in a Pirates uniform” being pretty undebatable is cut-and-dry.
I knew Luplow had the potential to be a contributing major league bat, and I was happy for him when he finally got an opportunity for more playing time.
They’re, not their. Come on…
Everybody knows their proper grammar at MLBTR. They deliberately do these tricks to keep you interested. Their not stupid, y’know?
*they’re
So it IS as compulsive as it seems.
honestly am suprised he broke out like he did. thought he was a AAAA guy for sure
I thought that NH seemed to give up too soon on this guy and he was brought up too quickly in 2017.However,,the splits are the biggest that I ever recall.
The Pirates overestimated Gonzalez’ ability but it is too soon to give up on him.He was hoped to become the next SRod.
Thomas has some potential which only goes to prove that it takes several years to be able to fully rate a trade.
Let’s see how Luplow does the next year.
It’s too soon to make a definitive judgement on Luplow, but there are signs that point to him being legit.
Mainly that he didnt have wild splits in the minors. If you want to get a feel for possibilities, look at what he did at AA Altoona.
Altoona has one the worst parks for hitters in all of baseball, but Luplow crushed everything while there.
Small sample size, but paired with the fact that all he did was hit at every MiLB level, its encouraging.
Luplows MiLB production compares very well to another castoff that became a Tribe fixture, Casey Blake. Both came from orgs that had good MLB players blocking them.
Just gonna put this here
2019 what could’ve been
Luplow LF
McCutchen CF
Bell 1B
Reynolds RF
Moran 3B
Newman SS
Stallings C
Frazier 2B
Cole SP
Archer SP
Williams SP
Brault SP
Taillon SP
Still could’ve even had traded for Archer tbh
Why have McCutchen in that? He’s on the IR and on a decline. Meadows is on the IR too, but going into his prime years. I’d take Meadows over McCutchen at this point. Polanco vs righties and Luplow vs lefties and you might have something there. Reynolds should be lead off and not a 4th hole hitter. Bump Luplow/Polanco down a slot. Toughest spot is that 4th hole and may put Meadows at 3rd spot and Bell at 4th. 5th spots and down is “patchwork” because it’s so weak outside of possibly Newman and Frazier. Moran is a chump and not your typical 5th hitter in any lineup. Closest 5th hitter would be Frazier. Moran can hit 6th followed by Newman and Stallings. 8 and 9 is definitely a weak spot. Or Moran in 7th and Newman 8th while 9th spot being the pitcher. Which sandwiches Newman in between two horrible hitters. Pick your poison.
As for Cole, he’d be in NY anyways and still would have traded him. He didn’t want to pitch for Searage anymore and wanted out of Pittsburgh. I still would take (as much as I hate to say it because I can’t stand him) Musgrove in the rotation.why have Tallion as the 5th guy? Tallion is your typical 2 or 3 pitcher on any club when healthy. For the Pirates with Cole gone, is the Ace at 1. Archer wouldn’t be a Pirate since Meadows is still here and that mean Glasnow would be pitching at number 2. Followed by Williams, Musgrove, and Kuhl. Not the greatest staff, but better than what we saw last year all around.
Tough to have that lineup, mainly because McCutchen and Reynolds were traded for each other.
I realize that you’re typing hypothetically, but having Gerritt Cole and Colin Moran would be hard to do even in the Fantasyland of hindsight. Moran came to the Bucs in the Cole deal.
This seems like a good time to mention that if you combined Luplow’s 2019 stats against lefties with the numbers Joc Pederson (someone who should be relatively easy to acquire) put up against righties in 2019, you get this:
-a .268/.372/.612 line in 619 plate appearances
-50 HR, 103 RBI (for all you fans of counting stats
-75 walks, 128 strikeouts
That would be an insane platoon. I wanted the Indians to get Pederson when the Dodgers’ trade to the Angels fell apart, and that’s why.
Too bad there’s a lot less of LH pitchers as opposed to RH pitchers. Born on the wrong side of the bed…..
I’ve always thought WAR has been overvalued. Who comes up with the value? The FED?
Is it like bitcoin?
Yeah, I don’t believe in that statistic, either and as a matter of fact, I think it is the most overrated statistic in baseball, with batting average being in a close second.
It seems to overvalue players.
Conspiracy?
Compared to what?