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CLEVELAND, OHIO - AUGUST 04: Jo Adell #7 of the Cleveland Guardians runs onto the field prior to a game against the New York Mets at Progressive Field on August 04, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Jo Adell built a reputation as a lefty masher before being traded to the Guardians. His career numbers vs. RHP have been a weakness, but there were stretches of success off them in the past. Today we will take a look at what the numbers say and try to determine if Adell has potential to hit RHP well enough to impact the game offensively on an everyday basis.
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Jo Adell had a very successful 2025 vs. RHP relative to his career numbers, but has fallen back down to being very poor against them so far in 2026. Was 2025 a fluke, or is there something there to indicate that there’s potential to recapture that success in what remains of the 2026 season? To determine that, let’s look at some of his underlying stats over the last 2 seasons.
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We can see the K% and the BB% have both dropped, which is a bit of a mixed bag, but the Whiff% has stayed fairly stable, so there’s no obvious deterioration in contact ability. The biggest change here is the 2026 vs. RHP contact quality has dipped a bit, with the largest drop coming in Barrel%. When we look at the numbers outright, we can see he’s basically league average in EV and in Barrel%, and decently above it in Hard-Hit%. This would indicate he’s still able to impact the ball with legitimate authority, but his precision is off in such a way that he’s not able to translate those swings into barrel level damage vs. RHP.
The good news is that there’s no indication that the approach has collapsed, and he’s still showing some ability to hit the ball hard vs. RHP. This data points more to a loss of consistency than a loss of ability to make quality contact. Obviously a .300 xwOBA is not good. In fact, it’s well below league average, but it’s also not “this hitter has no ability to hit righties.” As it stands right now, a .300 xwOBA would rank 4th on the Guardians’ current roster of hitters with over 50 PAs.
With the Guardians offense being in the state it’s been over the past 2 seasons, I can see why the team would want to give Adell a run vs. RHP. There’s enough to like in the underlying numbers and the recent history that it seems more than worth giving him a chance to recapture that 2025 form. Hopefully Adell can find that consistency again and be a formidable force in the box for the Guards, no matter who takes the mound against us!
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