Olney: How ABS has helped propel a left-handed-hit...

Baseball has historically leaned left in its design. Left-handed hitters have a slightly shorter distance to cover on their journey to first base, and with right-handed pitchers generally outnumbering left-handed ones, lefty batters have had more platoon opportunities than their right-handed peers. Yankee Stadium was designed for left-handed hitters -- initially for slugger Babe Ruth. When lists of the prettiest swings are compiled, most of the candidates are usually left-handed, from Ted Williams to Will Clark to Ken Griffey Jr. So perhaps it's no surprise that left-handed hitters are dominating in 2026 -- and a rule change this season might have swung the pendulum even more in their favor. Kyle Schwarber, the Philadelphia Phillies' left-handed slugger, leads the majors with 29 homers. The top eight hitters in OPS are Yordan Alvarez, Nick Kurtz, Ben Rice, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Schwarber, Munetaka Murakami and James Wood -- all of whom swing from the left side. Miami's Otto Lopez, right-handed, has the league's highest batting average -- but six of the next seven highest belong to left-handed hitters. In 2021, when the ABS system was a mere glimmer in MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's eye, left-handed hitters had a wRC+ of 97, as did tight-handed hitters. In 2024, lefties wRC+ was at 104, with righties 97. But with ABS in place this year, left-handed hitters own a wRC+ of 108 -- 13 points better than right-handers' 95 (100 is league average). Lefties are also in line for their best league-adjusted batting line since 1946. General managers offer various loose theories about why the game is leaning left -- and why finding productive right-handed hitters is more difficult than ever. They range from a possible ripple from the extreme velocity to injuries (such as the one suffered by the best right-handed hitter, Aaron Judge) to coincidence. But one partial explanation could be the introduction of the automated ball-strike system, which has helped to foster a truer strike zone -- and has helped left-handers disproportionately. Perhaps that's because catchers -- historically right-handed -- could smoothly handle pitches on their glove side, helping to coax favorable ball-strike calls. When diving into this phenomenon in 2015, we found that the five hitters who absorbed the highest percentage of missed calls were all left-handed, as well as 10 of the first 11 (the exception was a switch-hitter). Twenty-nine of the 30 hitters who received the most missed strike calls were either left-handed or switch-hitters. With the advent of ABS, the disadvantage lefties have faced over the years might now be somewhat neutralized, either through successful challenges or resulting adjustments by umpires. It's a change that could go a long way toward explaining the performance surge for left-handed hitters this season. "I do think that makes the most sense," one longtime pitcher wrote in a text. "For years, lefties got screwed off the plate, low and outside." A former MLB catcher seconded the theory. "I do agree that the left-handed hitters were hurt more on catchers' glove side in the past, especially away," he said. "At the infancy of pitch framing, this was shown to be true. ABS may have some impact on this, but I'm really unsure how much, because the mechanics of framing pitches have changed a lot over time." Daniel Murphy, a left-handed-hitting infielder who played 12 years in the majors from 2008 to 2020, recalled how catchers adapted to exploit the disadvantage lefties faced. "We would get a heat map of each umpire's strike zone," he texted, "and usually an area of expansion was the outside pitch to left-handed hitters. Catchers became very good at centering the pitch away (to lefties) in the middle of their bodies and presenting it as a strike to the umpire." ESPN analyst and former catcher David Ross disagreed somewhat, writing in a text, "I felt like left-handed hitters got screwed a lot on pitches inside. Umpires felt like they would give more (strikes to them) and less to right-handed hitters" because they had a better view of the pitches. One National League coach subscribed to the notion that ABS has helped left-handed hitters for better results on the low and away pitch. In particular, he believes, the shortest and tallest left-handed hitters have more confidence of correct strike calls being called at the top and bottom of the zone. "The ABS hasn't helped everyone," he wrote, "but the outliers, it has." CJ Abrams, the Washington Nationals' 6-foot left-handed-hitting shortstop, is 8-for-8 in successful challenges this season; Bryce Eldridge, the San Francisco Giants' 6-foot-7 left-handed slugger, is 7-for-7. And while some right-handed hitters are also using the challenge system to their advantage, the overall impact of ABS seems to be skewing left. Said Paul Hembekides, an ESPN content producer and researcher, with some of the numbers he dug up: "By 2025, the year before ABS implementation, the called strike zone had begun crystallizing around the rulebook strike zone. Umpires collectively grew stingier about straying from the black, and while hitters of both handedness have benefited since ABS began, left-handed hitters have disproportionately benefited on pitches on the outside shadow. Pitches that routinely generated called strikes because of a longstanding blind spot for predominantly right-eye-dominant umpires no longer do so nearly as often. And as a direct result, left-handed hitters are feasting." It is good to be a left-handed hitter in the big leagues these days.