I’m super frustrated with Murphy’s handling of Lara. When they called him up, I assumed there was some sort of plan for him to get playing time. Pratt was handled well in that regard.
Lara, not so much. And it’s not like he’s just been riding the struggle bus. He got some playing time early and did well with it. Since then he’s been jerked around in every OF position and has played sparingly. His ABs are still far too small of a sample to read into at all, but he’s never given any impression of being overmatched at the plate. There’s been some up and downs in the field. You’d expect that right now.
If they really just see him as a 4th outfielder then that’s fine, but I don’t really believe they did this long-term contract with him with that in mind.
Yesterday was kind of the tip of the iceberg for me. You’ve got a guy who is known for being a platoon bat and you pull Lara to go righty/righty with Vaughn. Had a lefty reliever been brought into the game I would have understood and supported it. Just option Lara if you aren’t even going to give him the opportunity to hit there.