Ian Happ’s struggles with his right-handed swing have the Chicago Cubs switch-hitter in a tough situation

SEATTLE — Chicago Cubs left fielder Ian Happ found himself in what has become a familiar position Saturday.

With the Seattle Mariners starting left-hander Cade Anderson for his major-league debut, the switch-hitting Happ wasn’t in the Cubs lineup. Instead, Kevin Alcántara got the start in left while Tyrone Taylor was in right field with Seiya Suzuki filling the designated hitter role. Happ’s struggles against lefties have made manager Craig Counsell look at other options.

“He’s going to still have right-handed at-bats, that’s for sure, so he’s going to continue to work on it and try to get there with it,” Counsell said Saturday. “But right now there’s going to be some places where he’s, especially against left-handed starters, that will probably go the other direction in the first part of the game.”

Lately, Happ’s only at-bats versus left-handers have come in the middle-to-late innings when a lefty reliever is in the game. He’s hitting just .229 with a .292 on-base percentage, .521 OPS and 34.8% strikeout rate in 132 plate appearances from the right side this season.

“It’s been tough,” Happ told the Tribune on Saturday. “Last year I didn’t get the results, but the expecteds were really, really good, and so that gave me some peace that I was doing the right things. I had some good at-bats early in the year right-handed and then it’s been tough. Whether it’s guys executing their pitches, it’s been a lot more of not doing damage on pitches that I know I can.”

Since the Cubs acquired Taylor at the trade deadline and Alcántara was recalled from Triple A, Counsell has been opting for either of those right-handed bats rather than putting Happ in the lineup on days they face a left-handed starter. That obviously limits Happ’s opportunities to get right in-game versus lefties.

“I’m still working on stuff, but when you get the limited at-bats and when you do get the opportunity and it doesn’t work out, you might have to wait,” Happ said. “I haven’t had a right-handed at-bat for a week and you do it again and if that doesn’t work then try something else. It’s a challenge of being a switch-hitter. The at-bats aren’t really consistent from the right side, so you’re trying to make tweaks on the fly, but you’re not really getting the reps to understand if it’s working or not.”

When Happ, a free agent after the season, has gotten right-handed at-bats this year, opposing left-handers are giving him a heavy dose of offspeed stuff. That largely has been the byproduct of Happ struggling against those pitch types while putting up better slug (.300 wOBA and .368 slugging percentage) when he sees fastballs.

Coming into Saturday, Happ from the right side owns a .072 wOBA and 54% whiff rate versus changeups, a .239 wOBA and 58.8% whiff rate off curveballs and a .239 wOBA and 36.6% whiff rate against sliders. He knows lefties want to force-feed him offspeed early in the count and potentially try to finish him off with a fastball.

“If you’re doing a good job about being disciplined on offspeed early but then you’re down 0-1, 0-2, then it gets really tough,” Happ said. “That’s the challenging part of just continuing to make adjustments. I hit fastballs really well last year, so of course they’re going to throw me more offspeed pitches and when you don’t capitalize on the fastballs you get in the zone, you feel like you’re playing catch-up.”

Counsell knows Happ is in a tough spot, that getting more right-handed at-bats might help him get going. This is the spot the veteran is in right now, though.

“That’s the hard part,” Counsell said. “It’s the hard part for any player who’s maybe getting less at-bats somewhere is that you need the at-bats to get on track, but you’re going to get less and so that’s real. That’s how it’s going to be so I don’t have a great answer for that. Essentially it ends up being the practice in the cage and then when you’re going to get some changes you’ve got to do something with the chances or be productive in those opportunities.”

While Happ’s offensive production has played out as he envisioned at the beginning of the season, he still has found ways to make an impact, especially in big moments. Following Happ’s home run in the eighth inning Friday that pulled the Cubs within one — eventually forcing extras against the Mariners on Alex Bregman’s ninth-inning long ball — he has a 1.048 OPS in late and close-game situations this year.

He believes his success in late-game high-leverage spots has less to do with adjusting his approach and more a result of his in-game preparation and understanding how a reliever might try to attack him.

“It’s being pretty disciplined to a pitch you want to hit,” Happ said. “And I’m pretty committed to it and understanding in those situations late-inning relievers are going to throw all their best stuff, if you can be disciplined enough to get yourself into a count where you’re going to get something you can handle.”