Seth Smith sat out the Seattle Mariners’ 5-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday due to tightness in his groin. He’s currently listed as day to day. His absence from the lineup forced manager Lloyd McClendon to make some moves Mariners fans should hope he doesn’t have to make often, namely playing Nelson Cruz in right field and having Rickie Weeks in the lineup against right handed pitching.

The night before, Cruz played the outfield also, but that was against left handed pitching, a definite weakness of Smith’s, and McClendon platooned Justin Ruggiano in left for Dustin Ackley, who also hits poorly against left handers, leaving Weeks to DH, all probably the best possible combinations. That night, the Mariners managed two hits and one walk, with one of the hits coming from Weeks and the other from Cruz.

Nelson Cruz in the Field

Cruz has had the dubious honor of having nine seasons in his career in which he failed to save a single run over league average with his play in right field. In 2012 with the Texas Rangers, his DRS (Total Defensive Runs Saved) was -12 and his lifetime DRS is -11. You definitely want to minimize the number of times “Hands of Stone” has to break out his glove. (To be fair, Seth Smith isn’t much better with a lifetime -9 DRS in right field).

Fortunately, there were no major mishaps in the field Wednesday night, and, in fact, Cruz got an outfield assist when he threw out Erik Aybar at 2B.

Rickie Weeks versus Right Handed Pitching

As an everyday second baseman for most of his career, Rickie Weeks has seen his share of right handed pitching, but his ideal use for the Mariners should be to platoon with either Seth Smith or Dustin Ackley against left handed pitching. Lifetime versus lefties, Weeks has a slash line of .261/.385/.448, whereas against righties he is .244/.332/.415. Compare that to .278/.359/.484 for Smith against right handed pitching and you can see that the Mariners definitely lose some offense in this scenario.

Going Forward

Ideally, against right handed pitching, the Mariners would like to use Smith in right field and Cruz at DH. It may be the case that Cruz will have to play the field occasionally when the Mariners face left handed pitching, but it would be preferable to play Weeks in left in place of Ackley and Ruggiano in right and just let Cruz DH. But, if Smith is out for any extended period of time, the Mariners lineup definitely loses some pop on most days when the majority of pitchers are right handed.

So, let’s hope that Seth Smith’s, err, um…hope he gets better soon.