Outfielder Jordan Luplow has signed with the High Point Rockers of the Atlantic League, the team announced this week. The 31-year-old made his debut yesterday.
Luplow has played for six big league teams across parts of seven MLB seasons. He’s carved out a role as a thorn in the side of left-handed pitching, consistently drawing walks and hitting for power against southpaws. His .227 average against lefties isn’t much, but Luplow has walked in nearly 14% of his career plate appearances when holding the platoon advantage and has slugged .495 in those matchups.
The resulting .268 ISO (slugging minus batting average) ranks 13th among the 226 players who tallied at least 500 plate appearances versus lefties during Luplow’s active years in MLB (2017-23), just behind prominent sluggers like Paul Goldschmidt, Austin Riley and Rhys Hoskins. Overall, Luplow is a .212/.314/.423 hitter in 1060 major league plate appearances. He’s picked up five years of MLB service thanks in large part to his ability to consistently hit for power against lefties.
The 2024 season was the first since 2016 in which Luplow didn’t appear in a major league game. He tallied at least 27 games and 87 plate appearances each year from ’17 to ’23. The 2014 fourth-rounder opened the 2024 season with the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate and looked like a prime candidate to join the Phils’ big league club at some point. He hit .255/.343/.450 with 10 homers and a dozen steals in 62 games, but Luplow suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee last June, ending his season.
Now that he’s healthy, Luplow will look to shake off any residual rust in the Atlantic League. Based on his track record as a quality role player, big league scouts will surely be keeping an eye on his progress there — particularly those from teams that have struggled against left-handed pitching in 2025. As of this writing, the ten teams with the worst output against left-handed pitching so far in 2025 (by measure of wRC+) are the Guardians, Brewers, Pirates, Rays, Braves, White Sox, Royals, Rockies, Orioles and Angels.
Not all of those teams will be clear fits. Atlanta has a crowded outfield, for instance, and will soon welcome Ronald Acuna Jr. back now that he’s begun a rehab stint. The White Sox and Rockies have younger, controllable players to whom they’d prefer to allocate playing time. But outfield-needy teams who’ve struggled against lefties, such as Kansas City and Cleveland, could make sensible landing spots. Of course, on a minor league deal, most clubs could justify taking a no-risk look at a veteran with Luplow’s track record — so long as he looks to be back in form following that knee injury.
reunion with the Guardians on a minor league deal would be awesome.
Luplow was electric for Cleveland like 5 years ago but I don’t see how he would be an improvement on Noel and Thomas (once he’s back)
He would almost certainly be an improvement over Noel. Any warm body would at this point. Noel needs some time in Columbus to recover himself. But you are right, with both Thomas & Fry starting rehab assignments yesterday there’s unlikely to be much interest in any RH bats in Cleveland soon.