The Platoon Split is Shrinking, but Not in Milwaukee

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Photo via Milwaukee Brewers - Facebook

Milwaukee Brewers

Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang high five during the game against the Boston Redsox on May 26, 2025

Playing the matchups is one of baseball’s most traditional strategic managerial moves but it’s possible that in one way it’s less relevant in 2026 than it’s ever been before, unless you play in Milwaukee.

Throughout much of modern baseball history teams have built lineups and made late game substitution decisions in order to get the “platoon” advantage. While there are individual exceptions to the rule, leaguewide both right and left-handed hitters have almost always fared better against opposite handed pitchers than pitchers who throw from the same side. The impact level has varied but it’s almost always been more pronounced for left-handed hitters, who have had an advantage against right-handed pitchers but often been neutralized by left-handed throwers.

One relatively recent MLB rule change limited teams’ ability to take advantage of this split late in games: In 2020 the sport implemented the “three batter minimum,” requiring relief pitchers to either face three batters or complete an inning before leaving the game. This greatly reduced the value of situational left-handed pitchers (often referred to as the Lefty One Out GuY or LOOGY), who now couldn’t be used solely against their best matchups.

Lefty Gap Remains

Even in the seasons immediately following that rule change, however, the gap against left-handed pitching was enormous: In 2021 right-handed hitters had a .766 on-base plus slugging against southpaws, while lefties only had a .656 mark against them. The gap has narrowed every season since, though, and in 2026 it’s fallen to just 52 points. 2026 is the first season this decade where the platoon split against right-handed pitchers (59 points) is larger than the gap against lefties.

The actual platoon split is and likely always has been larger than those numbers would suggest. Teams may shuffle their lineup when an opposing starting pitcher throws lefty or pinch hit late in games to avoid a left-left matchup, but the players they remove in those situations are almost always their weaker hitters. The game’s brightest stars are typically left in to face pitchers of both handedness, so the “same” side of the platoon split over-reflects their performance and under-reflects what weaker hitters might have done if left in. Even so, however, the split is shrinking and with it one of the game’s most prominent strategic advantages is largely less important than it’s ever been.

That trend, however, has not carried over to the Brewers. Facing left-handed pitching may be less of a problem for left-handed hitters across the league, but the Brewers are lagging behind most contenders on that front. They entered the All Star break 22nd in the majors with a .690 on-base plus slugging against southpaws. The statistic tOPS+ compares a team or player’s performance in a specific split to their overall numbers, and under that lens the Brewers’ lefty struggles look even worse: Their mark is 89, where 100 would be no split at all. That ranks 26th out of 30 MLB teams. In a related note, they’ve batted 1130 times against lefties as a team this season, seventh most in the majors.

Good News for Brewers

The struggle is especially real for one of the Brewers’ brightest stars: Brice Turang has batted against left-handed pitchers 115 times this season, more than any other player on the roster, and has a .568 on-base plus slugging against them. Joey Ortiz (.560 in 84 plate appearances) and Sal Frelick (.490 in 75 plate appearances) have also seen diminished performance in that situation.

The good news for the Brewers is the fact that this could be a relatively easy problem to solve before the upcoming trade deadline. Right-handed hitters who crush left-handed pitching are often referred to as the “short side” of a playing time split because teams face more righties than lefties, so their value to a team is less than someone who hits righties well and can play more often. In the Brewers case, however, having a few righty batters who strike fear in the hearts of opposing lefties could make a major difference down the stretch and in the postseason.