Manager Terry Collins has given more playing time recently to Ronny Paulino, essentially splitting time equally behind the plate between Paulino and Josh Thole for the last six weeks. Before the season started, I suggested that the duo would make an ideal platoon team, with Thole getting the majority of the ABs due to being a lefty hitter. But Collins seems to be simply splitting the at-bats, with Paulino getting starts against RHP, but not when Dickey is pitching.
It’s hard to argue with getting Paulino more playing time. He is batting .333 overall and in his last 25 games, he’s batting .346 with an .818 OPS. There’s only one problem here. Over that same time span, Thole has been better. This gets obscured because Thole got off to a terrible start, and his full season numbers look underwhelming, but in the last six weeks, Thole has been better than Paulino.
Here are their stats since May 24th, when Paulino broke out of 1-14 slump with a 2-for-4 game.
RP – .346/.361/....
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