Left-handed hitters are dominating major-league offense in 2026, and baseball’s new automated ball-strike (ABS) system is being cited as a possible factor. Philadelphia’s left-handed slugger Kyle Schwarber leads the majors with 29 home runs. The top eight hitters in OPS — Yordan Alvarez, Nick Kurtz, Ben Rice, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Schwarber, Munetaka Murakami and James Wood — all bat left-handed. Miami’s Otto Lopez, a right-hander, has the highest batting average, but six of the next seven highest averages belong to left-handed hitters.
Measured by wRC+, left-handed hitters have improved markedly since ABS arrived. In 2021 lefties had a wRC+ of 97, equal to right-handers that season. By 2024 lefties were at 104 while righties were 97. With ABS in place this year, left-handed hitters own a wRC+ of 108, 13 points higher than right-handers’ 95 (100 is league average). Lefties are on pace for their best league-adjusted batting line since 1946.
One partial explanation offered in the analysis is that ABS has produced a truer strike zone, which may have disproportionately benefited left-handed hitters. Historically, catchers — most of whom are right-handed — could frame pitches on their glove side in ways that coaxed favorable calls away from left-handed batters. A 2015 examination of missed calls found the five hitters who absorbed the highest percentage of missed calls were all left-handed; 10 of the first 11 were left-handed or switch-hitters, and 29 of the 30 hitters who received the most missed strike calls were either left-handed or switch-hitters.
Baseball voices quoted in the review backed the framing theory while noting uncertainty about the magnitude of ABS’s impact. A longtime pitcher wrote that lefties had been “screwed off the plate, low and outside.” A former MLB catcher said left-handed hitters were hurt more on catchers’ glove side, especially away, and that ABS “may have some impact,” though framing mechanics have changed over time.
Former big-leaguer Daniel Murphy recalled teams using umpire heat maps and catchers centering away pitches to present them as strikes. ESPN analyst and former catcher David Ross offered a differing view, writing that he felt left-handed hitters often were disadvantaged on inside pitches, according to text provided in the review. The analysis concludes that ABS could be part of the reason for the left-handed surge this season.
