The Cleveland Guardians have been incredibly high on Chase DeLauter ever since he was drafted in the first round nearly three years ago.

Still, there were some natural concerns with the outfielder. One of the biggest is that DeLauter is a pure left-handed hitter, which historically means he should struggle against left-handed pitching.

For the beginning of DeLauter’s professional career, that reigned true.

In 2023 at the Minor League level, DeLauter had a .591 OPS against southpaws. In 2024, the number was slightly better with a .651 OPS against left-handers.

DeLauter did show signs of improvement against lefties in 2025, but in a small sample size.

Fast forward to DeLauter’s rookie MLB season, and he’s hitting left-handed pitching better than right-handed pitching.

Looking at the splits, the 24-year-old has a .234/.312/.391 slash line against righties, and a .368/.413/.526 slash line off lefties.

DeLauter put an exclamation point on this early success off lefties on Thursday afternoon with a towering home run off Minnesota Twins left-hander Kendry Rojas. DeLauter pulled the ball off the right-field wall, and it traveled an estimated 394 feet.

On that specific homer, in which the pitch was inside and well above the zone, DeLauter said he was trying to “stop trying to swing so hard. I mean, really just keep the hands tight, be quick, to the ball, gives me a little bit more reaction time”

Regarding DeLauter’s overall success against left-handers this season, he believes much of it has come down to his mindset in matchups that, in theory, shouldn’t favor him.

“I would say recently, like this season, I've been better against lefties than I've been in the past, and I think that's part of kind of flipping the mindset a little bit on them,” explained DeLauter.

“Understanding, literally scientifically, I'm not gonna see the ball as well against lefties as I do righties, and just going up there with a lot of confidence.”

The Guardians always felt that DeLauter could do plenty of damage against right-handers. Now, with the rookie proving he can be just as impactful against lefties, he’s only raising his ceiling as a fully developed player.

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