BRADENTON, Fla. -- Growing up playing wiffle ball in the back yard, Colin Moran hit against a lefty, his brother Brian. When he went to high school, he hit against lefties. In college, he hit against lefties, and he continued to do so in the minor leagues throughout his development.
But once Moran came to the majors, he was more or less immediately turned into a platoon player, facing mostly right-handed pitching.
"It's definitely something in '18 I had to adjust to," Moran was telling me about becoming a platoon player. "I couldn't complain whether I was playing or not. We had a good team with super-talented players."
So it was a bit of a culture shock to see Moran driving line drives and home runs in a batting practice thrown by new first base coach Tarrik Brock.
"It was good to see the way the ball was coming off [the bat]," Derek Shelton said of Moran's reps against Brock.
Brock is, you guessed it, a lefty.
That could be a sign of things to come in 2020.
This is Moran's third spring training with the Pirates. It is also the first where the team does not have a clear-cut right-handed hitting third baseman to complement him. In 2018, it was veteran David Freese. In 2019, Jung-Ho Kang.
Infielder Erik Gonzalez has been taking reps at third base this spring and Jose Osuna played a little at the hot corner in 2019, but with Ke'Bryan Hayes almost certainly starting the year in triple-A, the third base job appears to be Moran's. That would entail more at-bats against lefties.
Shelton has been very noncommittal about most of his roster spots this spring, wanting to see his players in person before making decisions. Moran's role and playing time -- and his possible increase in at-bats against lefties -- have not been decided yet, or at least not announced.
If Moran does earn those extra at-bats, he'll be ready for them.
"I've always been comfortable against lefties," Moran said. "I know it's obviously different in the big leagues, but my whole life, I feel like I've hit them."
Getting more at-bats against lefties would, of course, mean more regular playing time. A platoon does not lend itself to consistency, which Moran greatly values. Depending on the other teams' starting pitchers, there could be times when he could start six or seven times in a week, and others where he only gets two or three.
"There would be choppiness in my continuity of starts. And then when I did face lefties, I thought a lot of them were a lefty specialist, or something out of the 'pen," Moran said.
Moran was right. Of his 78 plate appearances against left-handers in 2019, 51 were against relievers, according to Baseball Savant.
While it was obviously an extremely small sample size, he batted .296 with a home run and three doubles in those 27 plate appearances against left-handed starters. Most of those hits came in his second or third at-bat of the game and he saw what the pitcher's stuff looked like.
"Consistency, I think, helps the most, but I also understand you have to earn that," Moran said. "I'm trying to prove that I can put together good at-bats against whoever's on the mound."
Moran conceded he really struggled against lefties in 2018, but felt his approach and at-bats improved last season. It's tough to shed the label of a platoon player, but he knows if he continues to improve against southpaws, the playing time will follow.
"I know up here, it's a production league. At the end of the day, you earn what you get in the big leagues," Moran said. "I was always confident in myself. I know I can do it. I'm just trying to go out there and prove it."
