Last season, the Astros had a platoon advantage problem. Having traded away lefty Kyle Tucker, and only receiving righty bats Isaac Paredes and Cam Smith in return, the lineup was short of left-handed bats. At the outset of the season, Yordan Alvarez was the only left-handed hitter in the lineup, and since the team was short of lefty bats, switch-hitting backup catcher Victor Caratini found his way into the lineup more often.
Yordan ended up injured for much of the 2025 season. The Astros called up Taylor Trammell to get some at-bats, traded for Jesus Sanchez for another lefty bat, and got some scattered at-bats from Cooper Hummel, Jacob Melton and Zach Cole, but it was still no surprise that the Astros finished 30th in the majors in left handed plate appearances.
In 2026, Yordan’s been healthy (apart from one game of back spasm). The Astros have also had Joey Loperfido, Taylor Trammell, Braden Shewmake, Zach Cole, Cesar Salazar, and even temporary outfielders Daniel Johnson and Dustin Harris. In yesterday’s game against the Rangers, they even had 4 lefties in, allowing them to alternate left and right handed hitters: R-R-L-R-L-R-L-R-L.
This boon of lefties on the roster has moved the Astros up to…
Oh, they’re still 30th out of 30. Although not by as much.
The good news is that as team, the Houston Astros’ left handed hitting is at or near the top of the league in rate stats.
| Stat | Value | MLB Rank |
|---|---|---|
| AVG | .266 | 3rd |
| OBP | .350 | 3rd |
| SLG | .475 | 2nd |
| OPS | .825 | 1st |
| ISO | .210 | 1st |
| wOBA | .359 | 2nd |
| wRC+ | 130 | 1st |
Unfortunately, that’s almost entirely because of Yordan Alvarez, who has ~46% of the team’s left handed plate appearances. The Astros do not have a deep left-handed hitting lineup.
| Name | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | wRC+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yordan Alvarez | 238 | .305 | .416 | .635 | 1.050 | 186 |
| Braden Shewmake | 67 | .281 | .292 | .469 | .761 | 112 |
| Joey Loperfido | 66 | .276 | .348 | .362 | .711 | 104 |
| Zach Cole | 53 | .157 | .189 | .353 | .542 | 47 |
| Taylor Trammell | 36 | .344 | .417 | .438 | .854 | 146 |
| Dustin Harris | 36 | .226 | .286 | .290 | .576 | 63 |
| Cesar Salazar | 19 | .063 | .211 | .063 | .273 | -6 |
| Daniel Johnson | 17 | .143 | .294 | .143 | .437 | 43 |
One of the problems with not having a lot of left-handed hitting in your lineup is that opponents can more easily create better pitcher-batter matchups in their favor. On more than one occasion last year, opponents altered their pitching rotations to have their lefty starters miss the Astros series.
While the 2026 Astros have a few more lefty bats at their disposal, only Yordan is any threat that other teams would need to gameplan around. These are no longer the Astros that featured lefties Yordan, Kyle Tucker and Michael Brantley scattered in the lineup.
Shewmake’s 2026 offensive production had a lot of luck involved, which we’re now starting to see tail off. Harris and Johnson are no longer with the team. Salazar is only around for as long as Yainer Diaz is on the IL, and nobody’s mistaking his bat for Joe Mauer’s anyways. Zach Cole has promise, but has been optioned to AAA to work on some holes in his plate approach.
Joey Loperfido showed flashes of offensive promise before he got injured. He is on a minor league rehab stint and is due to return soon. Taylor Trammell was just activated from the IL, and in his brief time with the big club in 2026 has been surprisingly productive.
Loperfido and Trammell are the players that the Astros would most like to establish themselves offensively to give the team’s left-handed hitting a little more depth. With Trammell back up and Loperfido expected back shortly, we’ll be able to see if that happens. Otherwise, the Astros may be in the market for another left-handed bat at the deadline, (provided they’re still hanging around the playoff picture). Heck, the left handed depth is so shallow, they might be in the market even if Trammell and Loperfido succeed.
Astros @ Rangers Game Information and Gamethread Details
The Astros try to start a new winning streak behind Mike Burrows‘ 11th start of the season. Burrows hasn’t had the results everyone was hoping for with a 5.75 ERA, 1.527 WHIP, 7.7 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 on the season, but he’s at least eaten innings, makign sure to go at least 5 innings every start, except for one where he went 4 2/3.
The Rangers start 2 time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom. deGrom is 3-4 in 10 starts, withg a 3.86 ERA, 1.025 WHIP, and a fantastic 10.8 K/9 compared to his 1.8 BB/9.
The Mariners beat the Athletics again last night, so here’s how the AL West standings look coming into tonight:
| W | L | Pct | GB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATH | 27 | 28 | .491 | – |
| SEA | 27 | 29 | .482 | 0.5 |
| TEX | 25 | 29 | .463 | 1.5 |
| HOU | 24 | 32 | .429 | 3.5 |
| LAA | 21 | 34 | .382 | 6.0 |
This post will be updated with starting lineups as they are made available.
The game will be broadcast at 7:05 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.
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Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link
The fact that opposing teams can plan their rotation schedules to minimize LHP really hurts the offense. Currently the Astros’ offense has a 112 wRC+ vs. LHP and 105 wRC+ vs. RHP. In general, the Astros’ current 107 wRC+ on offense would increase if they faced more LHPs.
Similarly on the pitching side, the Astros’ rotation suffers from a lack of LHP. Gordon has been the only lefty in the rotation, and he performed so badly that we may not see him again in the rotation this year. That is why we see so many teams loading up their batting order with LHBs against the Astros. It depends on how switch and LH hitters a team carries, but I think we saw it most drastically in the Guardians series, where they started 8 or 9 LHBs in each game. As you may have noticed that the Astros have trouble throwing strikes against LHBs. The Astros’ walk rate is bad facing both sides of the plate, but the walk rate against LHBs is 6.24/9 IP vs. 4.97/9 IP against LHBs.