Blue Jays' Derek Fisher might be a rare left-handed southpaw killer

Platoon splits are one of the most commonly misapplied and misunderstood statistics you’re going to find in a baseball article or broadcast.

While it’s interesting to know how a hitter has done against right-handed or left-handed pitching individually, the sample sizes - especially on the lefty side - are usually sufficiently small that the numbers you see aren’t predictive. That said, sometimes they are jarring enough that it feels like something significant has to be happening.

That appears to be the case with Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Derek Fisher, who has hit an excellent .282/.354/.451 vs. southpaws in his brief MLB career compared to the .172/.257/.340 he’s managed against righties.

“It’s an approach thing,” Fisher says when asked about the discrepancy. “Sometimes I get a little bit too big against righties.”

Now, Fisher’s MLB career is short enough for it to be fair to dismiss those exaggerated figures. After all, the 25-year-old has stepped up to the dish against left-handers just 82 times at the highest level. That said, his history of hitting lefties is pretty hard to poke holes in if we include his minor-league career.

In ,647 pro plate appearances, this is what his splits look like:

Those numbers are close enough that it’s hard to argue that he’s a true skill reverse platoon guy - an extremely rare breed - but they do suggest that hitting southpaws is far from his biggest issue. Fisher believes it’s really a matter of being more patient against lefties and not lurching at pitches in front of the plate.

“It’s simply just letting the ball travel and letting good things happen,” he says. “When you try to hit the ball out front sometimes you’re susceptible to off-speed. A lot of off-speed in hitter’s counts has been what’s getting me in trouble.”

A good example of that came on Sunday against the Yankees. Fisher had a man on first base and a 2-0 count against Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka didn’t give in with a fastball and Fisher found himself in front of an 83 mph slider - which led to a double play.

The polar opposite of that sequence was the first home run the outfielder hit in a Blue Jays uniform. Facing southpaw Colin Poche, Fisher waited on a 93-mph fastball down in the zone and unloaded on it for a 105.9-mph bomb.

“Against a righty, sometimes with the ball always coming in to me it’s easier to get big and pull the ball,” he says. “My strength has always been using the whole field.”

Fisher’s big-league splits - small sample or no - back up that assertion.

The outfielder also believes there’s a mental component that plays a significant role in explaining the phenomenon. As a left-handed hitter facing a lefty, you come to the plate with your back against the wall from the first pitch. Fisher sees that as something he can channel.

“I feel like a lefty is obviously going to have a little bit more of an advantage against me and I know that,” he says. “So I feel like it just locks me in.”

The challenge he faces now is taking his success against southpaws and trying to apply it to his battles against right-handers. As encouraging as his work against lefties is, his .599 OPS against opposite-handed pitching isn’t good enough - and it comes in a not-insignificant sample of 264 plate appearances.

“I try to use it to my advantage against righties,” he says. “But obviously I haven’t really figured that out yet.”

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For the majority of left-handed hitters coming into the league, the biggest challenge is hitting nasty lefties and proving they can plan every day. Rowdy Tellez made big strides on that count earlier this year. Cavan Biggio is still dealing with pretty pronounced difficulties against southpaws.

Fisher’s struggle to establish himself is taking a different form, but that suits him just fine.

“Quite frankly, if that’s how things are right now I can live with that because lefties help me get back on track with the righties.”

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