Yankees Getting the Platoon Advantage Often

Managers formulate lineups each day with a lot of variables and constraints that are typically taken into account. How hot or cold is a particular hitter? How well has each player done against the opposing pitcher in the past? What park will the game be played in? Some of these questions don’t matter (hot/cold streaks and past batter/pitcher matchups) at all or matter only marginally (park consideration). One factor that absolutely needs to be considered is the handedness of the opposing pitcher. Extensive research has been done on the topic with the same instructive conclusion: achieving the platoon advantage (right on left or left on right) is worth a substantial amount of points in offensive measures (BA, OBP, OPS, wOBA, etc.) and the runs that result from an increase in those metrics. Handedness of batters and pitchers should be carefully considered when formulating strategies in baseball.

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Earl Weaver was notorious for understanding these left/right splits and utilizing platooning. The Yankees also certainly know the huge effects that handedness plays in baseball. They historically have targeted left-handed hitters that profile well in their home ballpark. An ancillary benefit of this approach is getting the platoon advantage often as right handed pitchers typically throw around 70% of the total innings in a given year. Furthermore, they have featured many switch hitters (Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, even Tim Raines) in the last 20 or so years. This season is no different as beyondtheboxscore.com measured each team’s ability at getting the platoon advantage for its hitters. The Yankees rank second behind the Cleveland Indians in terms of getting the platoon advantage for hitters at 72.29%. They, again, have many lefties (Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Ichiro Suzuki) and switch hitters (Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, and Chase Headley) receiving a healthy portion of the plate appearances. The Yankees are getting, likely by design, the platoon advantage for their hitters in a large percentage of plate appearances this season.

Getting the platoon advantage at a very high rate on offense is very valuable in an era of hyper-specialized relief pitchers and diminished offensive levels. Having a balanced lineup with multiple switch hitters provides an edge. However, getting right on left or left on right hasn’t translated into hitting success (93 wRC+) or runs scored (555) for the Yankees this year. (Interestingly, Chris Teeter at beyondtheboxscore.com found there to be little correlation (r^2=0.006) between platoon advantage percentage and runs scored for teams this season) This underscores a broader idea: at some point the focus has to be on acquiring and employing quality hitters with less regard for which batters’ box they stand in.