As of 8/10 (before the game today) Angel Martinez is sitting at an 81 wRC+ on the season, but that doesn’t tell the full story. The truth is this: Angel looks like a stud against LHP and a bust against RHP. Provided below is his triple slash and wRC+ splits in 2025:

Vs RHP: .201/.226/.323 with an OPS of .549 and 49 wRC+
Vs LHP: .311/.364/.528 with an OPS of .893 and 147 wRC+

With nearly a 100 point swing in wRC+ and a swing of over 400 points in OPS, it is easy to conclude that Martinez should give up switch hitting and become a primary RHH. I decided to dig a little bit deeper though, so I went through six of the most established switch hitters in the big leagues to find out how they compare in R/L splits year to year. Those six are: Jose Ramirez, Carlos Santana, Ozzie Albies, Ketel Marte, Francisco Lindor, and Jorge Polanco.

I want to add a disclaimer that this demonstration’s methodology isn’t perfectly scientific, but I think it paints the picture well. The average wRC+ at the bottom is the average by season, so the denominator is number of seasons I have listed rather than the average being weighed by amount of plate appearances (which is the career average).

First, obviously, is Jose Ramirez:

As I look at these numbers for Jose I am most interested that while he is inconsistent from year to year, over his total career he has hit nearly the same as both a lefty and righty. There isn’t much evidence here with Jose that benefits Angel Martinez’ case, as Jose has been at or above average from both sides of the plate since his breakout season in 2016. Jose has had a few seasons with huge swings between the two sides of the plate, with three out of the largest four also seeing a better year from the right side just like Angel Martinez.

Lets take a look at the rest before starting to draw any conclusions, next up is Carlos Santana:

Carlos has been more consistent than Jose Ramirez from year to year with the biggest difference between left and right coming in his first season of sufficient sample size. I would say that is a positive sign that Angel can improve from the left side and become more consistent. That said, Carlos had a wRC+ of 104 on the worse side that season, which Angel is nowhere close to right now.
Next up is Ozzie Albies:

It’s clear in the table why many people believe Albies should give upp switch hitting and try just hitting from the right side of the plate. So far this is definitely the most similar hitter to Martinez with the exception of 2023 where the Braves as a team hit like what would be the 3th best hitter in baseball this season. The fact that mostly improved on his weak side is positive for Martinez’ case, but Ozzie only improved by about 10 points from his first season. Not a glowing example for how we hope Angel’s bat will develop.

Ketel Marte is all over the place and clearly superior as a RHH like Angel. This chart is honestly a little hard for me to make sense of. The biggest point for me is that a player who is clearly better from one side can still have good seasons from the other side, which bodes well for Angel in my opinion.

Next is Francisco Lindor:

Francisco Lindor follows a very interesting pattern, especially in the context of projecting Angel Martinez. As with Angel, Lindor is better from the right side of the plate towards the beginning of his career and then becomes more equal as he matures. It’s important to note that his tenure in Cleveland makes up the entire time he was clearly better from the right side. Lindor is the best example of how I hope Angel can improve. Now, I don’t think Angel is a Lindor level talent, but him evening out the splits as he develops is priority one for his career – whether that is between his current split or god-willing he finds himself as a 150 wRC+ player which is… doubtful.
Lastly we have Jorge Polanco:

Polanco is most similar to Ketel Marte; however he swaps between right and left for which side he is better from season to season. There is a chance that Angel’s career could play out in this way, where he is good from at least one side every year and you hope it’s the side the team needs the most help with.
Final Conclusions:
All six of these players have had different career progressions when it comes to switch hitting, but each paints a picture of how Angel’s development might go. I think that with how the numbers align there is no reason to pull the plug on switch hitting yet for Angel Martinez. If I were a coach I would recommend to him that he should give being exclusively righty a chance over the offseason maybe in a Dominican winter league and then make a more educated decision.
Extremely curious to here how all you readers think about this topic. Now that you have seen the information about the six established switch hitters, how do you feel Angel Martinez should move forward?