Veteran SF Giants outfielder's hot start has essentially ended platoon

While the SF Giants began the season with a platoon in place in right field, it seems like that platoon is over due to veteran outfielder Mike Yastrzemski's hot start at the plate. For now, his bat cannot be taken out of the lineup.

At the beginning of the season, Yastrzemski was getting starts in right field against right-handed starting pitchers while Luis Matos was getting starts against left-handed pitchers except for one weird exception early in the year.

SF Giants platoon in right field appears to be over for now

Yastrzemski got hot at the plate though, which earned him a promotion to batting leadoff in the lineup against right-handed pitchers. Not only that, but Yastrzemski has been getting more at-bats against left-handed pitching. He hit an impressive home run against a left-handed reliever on the Philadelphia Phillies which may have proven to manager Bob Melvin that Yastrzemski can do damage against lefties, even though that is his only hit in 14 at-bats against left-handed pitching so far this season.

The longest-tenured Giant was in the lineup on Thursday in the series finale against the Phillies where the team faced a left-handed starter. Then, Yastrzemski got the start in Friday's contest against left-handed starter Tyler Anderson of the Los Angeles Angels. He went hitless in both games, but it seems like Melvin wants to give Yastrzemski more opportunities to figure things out against lefties since he has looked excellent against right-handed pitching, slashing .349/.482/.605 with two home runs and nine runs batted in.

Melvin giving Yastrzemski a longer leash against lefties is also due to the fact that Matos has not done much against lefties to begin the year. He has five hits in 25 at-bats and one of those was a home run off a left-handed pitcher. Outside of that, he only has one hit against a lefty with his other three hits coming against right-handed pitchers.

The Giants no longer have an outfielder who owns left-handed pitching the way Austin Slater did at his peak, so it seems Melvin is just going to have to ride the hot hand in right field for the time being.

Right now, Yastrzemski is seeing the ball the best so it makes sense that he will see the lion's share of the starts in right field going forward. If he cools off at the plate, then perhaps we will see Melvin work Matos back into the equation, but for now Yastrzemski is the main guy in right field.