I may not agree with that rationale, however, the stance isn’t farfetched. To be fair, it wasn’t like Meyers also hits right-handers particularly well thus far in his career, but with his defense involved, Dusty Baker possibly felt as if Meyers offered a bit more overall upside than McCormick. Against sliders and sweepers, in particular, McCormick has truly struggled. For good reason, I might add, as his overall numbers ranged from average at best to below average across 522 plate appearances before 2023 (103 wRC+ in 2021, 88 wRC+ in 2022) against right-handers. However, the common complaint with McCormick as a hitter since 2021 is two-fold: His inability to hit right-handers and breaking pitches, specifically sliders and sweepers. While this hot streak will not last forever, it does breed confidence about what this lineup could be when health is less of a factor. His recent performance has provided a much-needed boost to a lineup that had legitimate concerns without Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez. Since June 2, only one hitter with 100 or more plate appearances has a higher wRC+ than McCormick: Shohei Ohtani. One of these players is McCormick, who is in the middle of an impressive hot streak at the plate. The Astros have had their fair share of the latter, especially as the drain of top prospects from the farm system has become more pronounced. Then there are instances when a player isn’t all that touted but steps up at every stop. A top prospect status by itself isn’t a guarantee of future success. That said, unexpected developments occur often in this game, for good or ill. But the organization has acted like the next long-term fixture in center field wasn’t already in the organization until Drew Gilbert came aboard in the 2022 MLB Draft. Of course, replacing someone like Springer is much easier in thought than practice. The position has become a carousel of current and former players in the meantime, with the likes of Myles Straw, Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers, José Siri, and Mauricio Dubón all manning the position in some capacity during the past few seasons. It is no secret that the Astros haven’t genuinely settled on a center fielder following George Springer’s departure before the 2021 season.
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