Wednesday’s game was significant. Not the A’s win, which unfortunately falls into the “meaningless” category due to 80 previous losses. There were elements of this win that provide essential building blocks for a contending team as the A’s venture into the second half of the 2020s.
Not one, not two, but three left-handed batters had big hits against the Red Sox’ lefty octopus. Why octopus? Because somehow Boston has assembled a 14 man pitching staff in which 8 of the pitchers are southpaws. Criminy and holy smokes rolled into one.
Anyhoo, the A’s have been vulnerable to left-handed pitching because three of their key players not only hit from the left side but have struggled mightily against their left-handed bretheren. They are Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, and Lawrence Butler.
Wednesday saw Kurtz take Payton Tolle deep in his first at bat to kick off not only a 2 for 4 game but one in which all 4 times he squared the ball up with high exit velocities.
Soderstrom came off the bench to deliver a huge pinch hit 2-run double that so startled 3B coach Eric Martins he went hysterically blind while having seizures that caused his arm to windmill uncontrollably for no reason.
And on the game’s final pitch, Butler came through against one of the very toughest LHPs in the game, Aroldis Chapman and his 50 straight batters faced without allowing a hit when he took the mound. Butler’s line drive single to LF won the game.
These 3 guys don’t need to “mash” LHPs in order to be great hitters. They just need to elevate their game to “decent” while they put up strong numbers — or in Kurtz’ case, video game numbers — against right-handed victims. A look at where these 3 are and where they might be headed…
Kurtz has been so good against RHPs it obscures his struggles against LHPs because his overall numbers are still incredible. But he has not been good against LHPs, often chasing sliders down and away and then getting frozen by fastballs in the zone.
His slash line to date, even after Wednesday’s 2 for 4 with a HR, is .193/.264/.386 (74 wRC+) with a 34.1% K rate. But there are signs of life as he is hitting more balls hard the other way and seeing that he doesn’t have to sacrifice slugging to do it.
Still, in between those successes have been a lot of failures, including strikeouts, as he tries to adjust to what LHPs are doing and figure out how to combat it. I personally have a lot of faith in Kurtz’ abilities to adjust, figure stuff out, make a good plan and execute it, so I am expecting his numbers against LHP to rise next year — the question is how much.
If he can get his wRC+ against LHPs even to 90 his overall stats will be a whole other level of ridiculously good. That’s because against RHPs he’s hitting .352/.455/.736 (219 wRC+), stats the likes of which we haven’t seen since the steroid infused days of Barry Bonds.
Soderstrom is struggling the least of the three, having had some success now for a couple months. But he started his career having significant issues mastering lefties — the biggest one being the A’s just wouldn’t let him try.
In 2023, Soderstrom batted just .167/.250/.222 but that was in only 20 PAs. In 2024 he hit .300/.364/.400…in all of 22 PAs. So he entered 2025 with all of 42 PAs in his career against LHPs. 2025 has been a mixed bag, starting off very poorly but getting much better, to where his season line now stands at a rather respectable .264/.305/.405 (94 wRC+).
That’s plenty good for a LH batter if he mashes RHPs, which Soderstrom is doing (279/.358/.495, 133 wRC+). He just needs the reps, which is precisely why you don’t platoon him, don’t pinch hit for him, don’t slow down the development.
Butler was actually great against LHPs in 2024: .291/.315/.523 (139 wRC+). But the mopey one has had plenty to mope about this season, putting up a frightening .189/.225/.358 (54 wRC+) line — part of why his game winning hit against Chapman was so stunning.
Whether it’s against LHPs or RHPs, Butler is at his best when he is using the whole field and so it’s no surprise that if he was going to succeed Wednesday against a tough lefty it was going to be spraying the ball to LF. It’s always a good sign when Butler isn’t looking to swing big and pull everything.
Overall: The Common Denominator
There’s a theme here and it’s that whether you’re talking about Kurtz’ HR, Soderstrom’s double, or Butler’s single you’re looking at balls hit the other way. Herein lies the key — in my ever so humble opinion — to the success any or all of them will have against LHPs.
For a lot of hitters they look to pull the ball most of the time and then sometimes adjust by hitting the other way. For LH batters facing LH pitching they need to think oppositely: generally wait and hit the other way and then adjust by pulling inside pitches, hangers and spinners, that are fodder for being pulled successfully.
If Kurtz, Sodesrtrom, and Butler adopt that hitting philosophy, which allows you wait longer and lay off the chase slider and still get to the fastball enough to put it hard in play — just probably not to RF — I think they are all capable of more than holding their own. But if they maintain the common default “pull hitter mentality” they don’t stand a chance.
And they’re only going to figure it all out if they get the chance to practice in real time, so let the kids play — and remind them how many hits, even doubles and HRs, are waiting for them down the left field line.