The Free Agent Market Still Has A Handful Of Interesting Platoon Bats

Free agency is slim pickings at this point, with very few potential everyday players still available. There are only 13 hitters who appeared in 100+ games last season who remain unsigned. Only ten of those names topped 400 plate appearances, and only three topped 500. Jurickson Profar and Elvis Andrus are the closest thing to surefire everyday players. Yuli Gurriel has been that throughout his MLB career but is headed into his age-39 season and coming off a poor 2022 showing. Given the quiet market, it seems unlikely he’ll be signed as anyone’s primary first baseman at this point.

That trio still has value to big league clubs, of course, and the free-agent market in general still has a handful of names who can be valuable part-time/bench pieces if deployed properly. Some of the following names have long been platooned in the big leagues, while others are perhaps aging their way into that more specialized type of role. Regardless, there are still some remaining names with a track record of doing damage in the proper platoon context. Let’s take a look at who’s left on the market that could still provide some offensive value in the right setting…

Versus Left-Handed Pitching

Robbie Grossman, OF

Grossman was an above-average bat in five of six seasons from 2016-21, with 2019 being the lone exception. He slipped to a .209/.310/.311 output in 477 plate appearances this past season between the Tigers and Braves, but he maintained his long track record of production against left-handed pitching.

The 2019 season — when Grossman didn’t produce much against anyone — is Grossman’s only full season since 2016 in which he wasn’t an unmitigated thorn in the side of lefties. He mashed southpaws at a .320/.436/.443 pace in 2022 and is a career .279/.377/.413 hitter against lefties. The switch-hitting Grossman has had productive stretches against righties, too, though he’s been inconsistent in that regard. He’s strictly a corner outfield/designated hitter option at this point, but he can clearly still do damage against southpaws.

Donovan Solano, INF:

Solano bounced around the infield as a utility option with the Marlins from 2012-15 and, after a brief nine-game look with the Yankees in 2016, fell off the MLB radar entirely until a 2019 resurgence in San Francisco. Solano came out of nowhere to hit .330/.360/.456 that year, and while much of that is attributable to a .409 BABIP he was never going to sustain, he’s remained an above-average hitter for three seasons now.

Much of that production has been a matter of Solano holding his own against righties while absolutely clobbering left-handed opponents. He’s posted a solid, albeit rather punchless .289/.342/.397 slash against righties since resurfacing with the Giants, but Solano has tattooed lefties at a .321/.363/.461 clip. It’s partially driven by a still-hefty .365 average on balls in play, but Solano strikes out noticeably less often and hits the ball considerably harder against lefties than he does righties. Solano has been primarily a second baseman/third baseman since returning, though he posted strong defensive marks in 215 innings at first base with the Reds last year. For the right team, he could be considered for everyday work, but he’d be an upgrade to quite a few benches around the league.

Yuli Gurriel, 1B:

Gurriel won a batting title and a Gold Glove in 2021, but the bottom dropped out on his 2022 season. He slashed just .242/.288/.360 this past season, generally mirroring his output from an ugly 2020 campaign.

Even with those dismal all-around numbers, though, Gurriel slashed a more palatable .265/.298/.441 against left-handed pitching — good for a 108 wRC+. Gurriel is a career .282/.333/.474 hitter against left-handed pitching, and as recently as 2021 he obliterated southpaws at a .326/.394/.530 pace (150 wRC+). Defensive metrics soured on Gurriel in 2022 as well, and there’s some obvious concern when a player in his late 30s declines this sharply. Still, he rarely strikes out (12.5% in ’22, 11.2% career) and has enough of a track record against lefties to think he can help a team in a part-time role. He’s been linked to the Twins, Astros and Marlins in recent weeks, though Miami has reportedly backed off on its efforts to sign him.

Versus Right-Handed Pitching

Tyler Naquin, OF

The 31-year-old Naquin split the 2022 season between the Reds and Mets, though both his role and his production declined following a trade from Cincinnati to Queens (even when weighting for the difference in park factors). The extent of the correlation (if any) between those two things can’t be accurately measured, but even with the dip in production post-trade, Naquin finished out the year with a solid .241/.300/.446 slash against righties.

Naquin is just a year removed from batting .283/.339/.514 against right-handed pitching, and he’s a career .274/.326/.468 hitter when holding the platoon advantage. Defensively, he’s best-suited for corner outfield work, although he logged 645 innings in center as recently as 2021. A team looking for an affordable lefty to plug into the outfield corners could do far worse than deploying Naquin as part of a platoon.

David Peralta, OF

Peralta logged the third-most plate appearances against righties of any remaining free agent last season (417) and was the most productive bat left on the market, by measure of wRC+ (116). He slashed .267/.329/.449 with 11 homers, 29 doubles and three triples in such situations, and he’s a career .294/.350/.486 hitter in such situations.

Peralta turned 35 in August, and his defensive grades — once universally above average — were more of a mixed bag in 2022. Defensive Runs Saved pegged him at minus-5, whereas Statcast’s Outs Above Average credited him with a plus-5 mark. The longtime Diamondback also saw his numbers crater following a trade to the Rays (.255/.317/.335, no homers in 180 plate appearances), which surely hasn’t helped his cause. Still, there’s little reason to think that stretch of 47 games firmly indicates that he can’t rebound, and the price to find out figures to be pretty light at this point.

Ben Gamel, OF

The 423 plate appearances Gamel logged in 2022 were the second-highest total of his career and his most since recording 550 trips to the plate with the 2017 Mariners. Gamel’s overall track record against right-handed pitching is that of a league-average hitter, although it’s skewed a bit by a pair of shaky seasons that are a few years in the rearview mirror.

In each of the past two seasons, Gamel’s 112 wRC+ against righties has indicated that he’s about 12% better than league-average when holding the platoon advantage. He’s batted .255/.351/.408 through 605 plate appearances in that time, walking at a huge 13.9% clip against a less-encouraging 24.3% strikeout rate. Gamel was a generally solid outfielder defender from 2018-20, but defensive metrics have soured on him as Statcast has increasingly panned his outfield jumps in recent years. He’s also seen his sprint speed decline (though it’s still in the 65th percentile) and his once-above-average arm strength dip to roughly league-average. Gamel was basically a replacement-level player in 2022, but if his defense bounces back at all, he can be a useful role player off the bench.

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There are certainly more names out there to consider. Catcher Gary Sanchez, for instance, has a solid career batting line against lefties but was well below-average against them in 2022 and actually hasn’t consistently hit southpaws over the past four years now. Edwin Rios has an above-average career line against lefties but in a relatively small sample, and his strikeout rates likely give teams some pause.

The aforementioned Andrus, conversely, was great against lefties in 2022 and has a decent track record against them, but he’ll probably be signed more for his glove and still seems like someone who could land a more regular role. Ditto, to a lesser extent, with regard to Jose Iglesias.

Profar hit both lefties and righties well in 2022 and remains without a team, perhaps due to a lofty asking price early on. Wherever he signs, it seems likely he’ll be in line for more regular work in the outfield, even if it’s at a lower rate than he anticipated earlier in the winter.

Other names might be conspicuous by their absence. Right-handed sluggers Luke Voit and Miguel Sano, however, both have better career numbers against righties than lefties — marginally so in the case of Sano but by a pretty wide gap with regard to Voit. Sano hasn’t had a productive season against lefties since 2019, while Voit saw each of his average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage check in shy of .300 against lefties in 2022.