New York Mets last in the league against left-handed pitchers

The New York Mets offense has been stifled by left-handed pitchers all year long. No other team has struggled more versus southpaws.

The left-handed heavy New York Mets lineup has been anemic this year when facing southpaws. Left-handed pitchers have absolutely demolished them. We saw this first-hand when the Chicago Cubs put several on the mound in the recent series at Citi Field.

There are obvious victims of left-handed pitchers. Lefty swingers like Jay Bruce, Michael Conforto, and Brandon Nimmo are hitting below .200. Unfortunately, they are far from alone.

It’s a bit surprising to see the right-handed batters whiff against southpaws this season. For instance, Yoenis Cespedes owns a .138 batting average against them in 29 at-bats. Todd Frazier isn’t much better at .154.

These numbers, from two of the better righties in the Mets lineup, doesn’t give me much confidence that this past weekend would have gone much differently. Their averages are worse than every position player on the roster aside from Jose Lobaton. Even Jose Reyes has hit .222 against them.

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Sadly, the only player on the roster not named Zack Wheeler with a batting average above .250 versus lefties is Asdrubal Cabrera. At .277, it’s hardly a number to brag about.

Tomas Nido did hit them well in his stint with the Mets. As usual, Juan Lagares handled lefties well until his season-ending injury.

As for everyone else, they are at .250 or below. It’s a horrible imbalance. Teams know exactly how to beat them.

The team has the worst batting average versus lefties this year by a large margin. After 538 at-bats, the roster is hitting only .203. The next closest, the Los Angeles Angels, is at .223 after 498 at-bats. The Mets have hit only 9 home runs versus lefties. To no one’s surprise, this is also a league-worst.

This team has plenty of problems. Losing as many righties as they did this season to injury surely hurt their numbers in this category. However, even those who should have the splits favor them have put up poor statistics.

When Cespedes and Frazier are back in this lineup, the veteran sluggers should straighten themselves out against southpaws. They need to. Otherwise, we’re looking at a team that can be easily defeated.

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Will this team ever figure out how to hit lefties?