Jo Adell has built himself a reputation over the six years he has played in the big leagues. The Cleveland Guardians were well aware of his skill set before and after trading for the outfielder ahead of the deadline.
Adell is best known as a power-hitting outfielder who has historically hit left-handed pitching incredibly well, while struggling more against righties. Even though the right-handed hitter tends to chase, when Adell does make contact, he can make pitchers pay for it with his power.
All things considered, that’s been the player the Guardians have gotten over the last two weeks since he joined the organization.
Since coming to Cleveland, Adell owns a .167/.280/.405 slash line in 12 games.
At face value, those numbers may not look all that encouraging. That said, Adell has still found success at the plate in the area that Cleveland hoped he would, which has also been his biggest strength throughout his career and an area the Guardians needed a boost: production against left-handed pitching.
Looking a little bit deeper at that slash line, Adell is simply mashing left-handed pitching with his new team.
As a member of the Guardians, Adell has smoked two home runs with a 1.092 OPS in 15 plate appearances off southpaws. For what it's worth, that's a little above average, but still on par with Adell's season OPS of .928 and his career OPS of .801 against left-handed pitchers.
After Cleveland traded for Adell, President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti even noted that Adell's "calling card" has been his ability to hit lefties.
The Guardians were hoping that Adell would be more productive against right-handed hitters, but that has never been an area where the right-handed hitter has excelled.
At this point in the Adell experiment, Antonetti said over the weekend that Cleveland's newest outfielder has met the team's expectations so far.
"I think we've seen the capabilities [he] has to help us," the exec explained. "[Jo has] fit in seamlessly in the lineup, as well have done what we'd hope and really add some depth and length to the lineup."
Can Adell do more to help the Guardians put together complete games? Sure. For example, his strikeout rate of 30 percent since coming to Cleveland could certainly improve.
However, the Guardians had a clear hope for how Adell would impact the lineup when they acquired him, and it's hard to say that vision isn't coming to fruition.