2 days ago
Red Sox rookies Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer will likely take a seat against tough Yankees southpaws this weekend
Yet with the Yankees likely to roll out three consecutive lefthanded starters (Ryan Yarbrough, Carlos Rodón, and Max Fried) for their weekend series at Fenway against the Red Sox, both rookies are likely to sit in deference to righthanded hitters Rob Refsnyder and Romy González for some — perhaps even all — of the games.
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'We have some good righties here. If we don't play Romy, we don't play Ref against the lefty, is that good for the team?' wondered manager Alex Cora. 'People get frustrated [about sitting the rookies against lefties]. I get frustrated, too, because I get the same question over and over again, but I've been doing it since 2019 like this.'
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Indeed, Cora has typically used platoons to protect lefthanded hitters such as Rafael Devers, Jarren Duran, and Triston Casas as they acclimated to the big leagues. But why not look at the performance of Mayer and Anthony in the minors and conclude that they're ready to handle both lefties and righties?
'I can drive a car,' analogized assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson. 'That doesn't mean I can be an Indy racecar driver.'
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The caliber of stuff featured by lefties in Triple A is drastically different than that of big league lefties. Across Triple A, the average left-on-left fastball (combined four-seamer and sinker) entering Wednesday was 91.7 miles per hour, with just 7.5 percent of them exceeding 95. In the big leagues, the average left-on-left fastball this year has hummed across the plate at 93 m.p.h., with 24 percent of the offerings coming in at 95 or hotter.
'Especially if you're a lefty that's 95 or better and can command it enough to execute game plans, every major league team wants that on their staff,' said Lawson. 'So you're not seeing that in Triple A.'
Anthony's first big league at-bat against a lefty illuminated the point. In the sixth inning of Monday's game, Rays manager Kevin Cash summoned southpaw Garrett Cleavinger specifically for Anthony.
Cleavinger threw Anthony two fastballs: One at 96.4 m.p.h. (first-pitch called strike), one at 96.8 (0-1 chase for a swing and miss). Anthony had seen only one left-on-left pitch in his entire Triple A season that was thrown that hard, a 96.9-m.p.h. fastball from Anthony Gose on April 24.
Cleavinger finished the at-bat by freezing Anthony with a sweeper — a middle-middle pitch that was hittable based on location but that Anthony didn't have in his mental database. He took a called third strike. The pitch had 20 inches of horizontal break toward the rookie.
In Triple A this year, Anthony saw only four left-on-left sweepers with more than 18 inches of glove-side movement; he swung at none of them (three were balls, one was a called strike). For that matter, Anthony had seen just 15 left-on-left sweepers with at least 15 inches of horizontal break. He swung at three, resulting in one well-struck single, one double-play grounder, and one swing and miss.
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That single at-bat highlighted why it's difficult to look at Triple A left-on-left numbers and assume they'll translate to the big leagues. There's an adjustment that players must experience.
'That's why they're here. That's why they're not in the minor leagues,' said Anthony. 'You come to learn from it and realize, 'OK, this isn't the same guy you're facing in Double A or Triple A three times a week,' so now we've got to adjust.'
The Sox want to give Anthony and Mayer opportunities to learn by facing elite lefties. But right now, the growth opportunities are secondary to trying to win games. And with both Gonzalez (.353/.421/.529 against lefties entering Wednesday) and Refsnyder (.279/.400/.558) demolishing lefties, the Sox won't shy from employing righthanded hitters who give them the best chance of success against lefties in critical situations.
Cora has discussed the topic with Anthony and Mayer when turning to the two righthanded veterans as pinch hitters. The rookies, in turn, said the conversation is unnecessary.
'Ref's our guy. Ref's
the
guy against lefties. [Hitting against lefties] is Ref's bread and butter. So as soon as [Cora] told me [Refsnyder would pinch hit for Anthony against a lefty on Monday], I was excited to cheer him on,' said Anthony.
'[Cora] didn't really have to explain much to me. I know that that's the goal, to get Ref up and try to help the team win. Ref obviously has more experience than I do, especially with big league pitching in general, but [especially] with big league lefties.'
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'Romy's a hell of a player, so whenever a tough lefty comes in and [Cora] switches me for Romy, I'm really confident that he's going to get the job done,' said Mayer (1 for 7 with three strikeouts against lefties). 'I trust every single person in this lineup, on this team, to help the team win.'
Eventually, if Anthony and Mayer are what the Red Sox expect them to be, their opportunities against lefties will come — just as they eventually did for Devers, Duran, and Casas. There will be learning moments in the big leagues that will allow them to adjust to the level of competition — something they'd shown the ability to do in the minors.
'Every level, there's growing pains and learning experiences,' said Mayer. 'And I think just getting at-bats and learning every single day, you get better and you figure it out.'
Alex Speier can be reached at
