Platooning is a Bour

Coming into the 2017 season, the Miami Marlins were pretty solid all around when it came to position players. There was one glaring issue though, hitting lefties.

The Miami Marlins were set as far as position players went this season. But, there was one position player that demonstrated a severe weakness.

Justin Bour and his inability to hit left handed pitching was a cause for concern in the Marlins front office. They toyed with the idea of bringing in a potential platoon partner for Bour.

The options for a power hitting, right-handed batting, first basemen were out there. For a while Mark Trumbo sat out while continuing talks with the Orioles, his eventual landing spot. Mike Napoli came into consideration as well before he rejoined the Texas Rangers.

MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro also reported that names like Chris Carter and Mark Reynolds had been linked to the Fish before signing with the Yankees and Rockies respectively.

What’s a Bour to do?

With all of these possibilities of platooning Bour, the Fish eventually decided to show faith in their power hitting Rule Five pick. Starting Bour on an everyday basis and exposing Bour to left handed pitching seemed like a good way for Bour to improve his numbers.

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Many of these same questions have been coming up early in the season as Bour has struggled. Struggles against not just left-handed pitching, but, all pitching.

For the season Bour is slashing a meager .214/.353/.246 against lefties with three hits in 14 appearances. While still a small sample size, the slugger has struggled. Silver lining alert, it’s hard to do much worse.

However, we have seen a recent surge of life in Bour’s bat. After struggling desperately in April, Bour showed us what his true capabilities are. Having a career game on the last day of May, Bour single handedly defeated the Pirates while knocking in six runs.

While we do not expect Bour to keep up that unrealistic expectation, it was nice to see him finally hit his stride. As long as he can maintain his numbers and begin producing more. The platooning question may finally be laid to rest.

The Marlins have squandered their time to sign a heavy hitting right-handed bat for the season. This off-season may bring about spending to add on a power righty.

Next: Stanton’s Struggles

Until then, however, we may start to see J.T. Realmuto get some time at first as well as Miguel Rojas as another platooning option.