Pittsburgh Pirates have options to leadoff vs LHP

With John Jaso firmly in place as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ preferred lead-off option against RHP, who should take that spot versus LHP?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have likely found a great lead-off candidate in John Jaso. With a career on-base percentage of .361, Jaso now seems like a fine, and perhaps obvious candidate for the honors. Yet it was not too long ago that many – including this very site – were debating between Gregory Polanco and Josh Harrison to lead off a potentially potent Pirates offense.

Is that still the case? Are those still viable options for the lead-off role?

As capable as Jaso has looked in the spot, history would indicate he should not be used there against left-handed pitching. The six-year veteran’s career splits against southpaws leaves a lot to be desired.

If the Pirates accept that hitting Jaso first against lefties is not an ideal situation, here are the candidates to fill that role.

Josh Harrison

Going into 2016, one of the biggest knocks on Harrison is that he was an all-or-nothing hitter. While carrying just a career 3.5 percent walk rate, Harrison also rarely strikes out, with a 15.1 percent mark, a full five percent below the major-league average since 2011.

While Harrison may not strike out, his walk-adverse approach may hinder the new approach the Pirates are trying to work to adopt. However, Harrison’s ability to knock out base hits may be just as good. In his breakout 2014 season, Harrison’s approach to the lead-off position resulted in a .328/.359/.535 slash in that role. With a .BABIP (batting average on balls in play) of .357, there was some luck involved, but not very much as the average for MLB clubs that year was .323.

Harrison is fully recovered from a thumb injury that robbed him of a huge chunk of the 2015 season. His September last year that saw him roaring back to the ‘Jhay’ of ’14 may give Clint Hurdle and the club confidence that he can handle a bigger role again.

Gregory Polanco

One of the (perhaps unintended) consequences of batting Andrew McCutchen second is the domino effect that move may have that would be felt across the board. One of those dominoes is the third-year cog in the best outfield in baseball.

It was a tale of two seasons for Polanco in 2015. The final batting line does not impress, but when considering that it was his first full year of major league play after a tumultuous debut, it speaks louder than initially heard. Polanco found his way to 35 doubles and 27 stolen bases last year, showing an ability to produce value when getting on base. Of course, getting on base proved to be a challenge at times for El Coffee, as his .320 on-base percentage indicates. When taking a deeper look and seeing that number drop to .239 for his career against lefties, he is absolutely not ready to take on that role.

Someone else

Those are the obvious choices, but is there someone on the current Pittsburgh Pirates roster that is being overlooked?

As our own Kurt Hackimer explained yesterday, Francisco Cervelli is a capable hitter that may be able to hit anywhere in the lineup for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In this particular lineup, however, his abilities would be best served batting after speedy hitters such as Polanco and Starling Marte. Cervelli’s 82.1 percent contact rate in 2015 will play well for the Pirates’ new approach of situational hit-and-run-heavy run creation.

Marte, despite his still-not-quite-yet-gone tendency to chase pitches, would be a waste of RBI creation at the top of the order. Ditto for Jung Ho Kang. Jordy Mercer has not yet proven to have a steady-enough approach at the plate to set the table. Newly acquired David Freese has never been asked to fill the spot with regularity and also factors in as an RBI threat.

When stepping back to view the entire slate of Pittsburgh Pirates hitters, it becomes obvious that Harrison would be the best option to lead off against left-handed pitching, despite his aversion to free passes.

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