How will the Rangers navigate key hitters' struggles against lefties?

Evan Carter and Joc Pederson are key pieces of the Texas Rangers' roster and will be regulars in the lineup at least four to five teams a week. But they have one kryptonite: left-handed pitchers.

Since the start of 2023, they've only had 18 combined hits (Evan Carter made his debut in Sept. 2023) against lefties and rarely even face them. Carter is still young and is certainly focused on improving that part of his game but Pederson is likely turning into more of a righty specialist.

Fortunately for them, left-handed pitchers are a rare breed in Major League Baseball which won't require a lot of lineup adjustment from Bruce Bochy throughout the year. But those varying lineups will have to be part of the plan.

Rangers' DH production has been poor, while Pederson brings improvement others will still need to step up when called upon

Signing Pederson was a key acquisition to the Rangers' offseason. The 32-year-old provides much needed power out of the DH slot, which was one of the least-productive positions for the team over recent seasons.

Pederson spent last year in the desert with the Arizona Diamondbacks appearing in 132 games, had one of the most productive seasons in the National League. His .393 on-base percentage was the best of any NL hitter with over 400 plate appearances. He finished the season hitting .275 with 23 home runs, 64 runs driven in and 55 walks.

However, he only had 32 at-bats against lefties and his stats took a dramatic drop hitting just .219 with one home run and his OPS dropped over 200 points (.968 to .749).

In 2024, the Rangers' designated hitters had the second worst batting average (.205) and worst in OBP (.263), slugging (.322) and OPS (.585) in MLB. The most productive Ranger in that role was Wyatt Langford but outside of that Adolis Garcia, Josh Smith and Corey Seager were among a platoon of players filled that role.

The good news? Those players are still with Texas and let's not forget their new infielder Jack Burger, all of which can step into that role when the other team decides to throw a left-hander and Bochy needs to sit Pederson.

What does Carter need to do to make himself more productive against left-handed pitchers?

Carter's struggles against left-handers aren't unfamiliar occurrences for left-handed hitters, especially those who have less than 100 major league at-bats in their career.

Left-handers usually have trouble recognizing pitches coming from the left-handers arm slot, which in turn causes issues with swing timing. There are several ways for a hitter to improve their luck against the pitchers, mostly include recognizing pitches early, improving plate discipline, adjusting their stance and even maintaining confidence.

Carter has always been great at plate discipline so that shouldn't be a big adjustment. However there have been cases where he's struggled with pitch recognition, not picking up pitches in time or even mistaking a fastball for an off-speed and vice versa.

The Rangers miss a lot with Carter out of the lineup, as we saw all of last season with his injury. He provides above-average defense, a great combination of contact and power, and gives the team a lot of depth throughout the whole lineup.

The ideal scenario for the Rangers is getting Carter to get more comfortable against lefties and it starts during the spring, focusing on making some of those key adjustments mentioned. If they are able to help him develop that part of his game Bochy will have to make only one lineup change when they face a southpaw.