It's late May, or thereabouts.
Right. Stop the presses.
Here's something, though: Pablo Sandoval's got exactly two hits against left-handed pitchers.
Boston's switch-hitting third baseman is 2 for 41 against lefties this season, and that's just science.
Meanwhile, he's batting 366/433/581 against right-handed pitching. Which is more in line with what you expect from a bat-first player with a $95 million contract.
Obviously, 41 at-bats is hardly a sample worth mentioning.
What's worth mentioning is that Panda struggled badly against lefties last season, too.
Another small sample!
Yes. So how about this: In Sandoval's career he's got a .366 wOBA against righties, .298 against lefties. He's been significantly worse than league-average against lefties in his career.
So should he be playing against lefties this season? And if so, what about 2016? Not to mention '17 and '18 and (gulp) '19?
It all depends on three things (or more precisely, three things I can think of right now) ...
1. How well he would respond to being platooned;
2. Who's on the roster as a platoon partner; and
3. His non-hitting contributions while playing.
I don't know anything about #1, but players with big contracts usually don't respond well to being platooned or otherwise benched. About #2, it doesn't seem that he's doing much with the glove, and certainly doesn't figure to get better as he gets older. Which is probably why everyone figures he'll eventually replace David Ortiz in the lineup.
And in the short term, there's no obvious platoon candidate on the roster, since Brock Holt bats left-handed and you're not going to play Xander Bogaerts or Hanley Ramirez at third base just against lefties.
So unless somebody wants to get super-creative, it looks to me like the Sox are stuck with an every-day third baseman who shouldn't be, at least for a while.
