Welcome back to the 2025-26 edition of <\/em>Smash or Pass<\/em><\/a>, in which we examine potential free agent and trade targets to determine whether the Red Sox should pursue them and what it would take to land them. Next up, a left-handed pitcher to pair with Garrett Croche<\/em>t who has been mentioned in Red Sox-Royals trade rumors. <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cole Ragans is a left-handed pitcher from Gainesville, Florida. He threw 64 innings with the Texas Rangers between 2022 and 2023 before being shipped to Kansas City in exchange for fellow massive southpaw Aroldis Chapman. He\u2019s started 57 games for the Royals in the 2.5 seasons since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If I were a GM, I would need to have someone on staff to say, \u201cJake, the pitching staff can\u2019t be entirely gigantic lefties.\u201d You could say I have a type. Cole Ragans is that type. Now, not all big lefties are created equally. Some, such as Payton Tolle, haven\u2019t quite figured out the arsenal past the heater. Others, such as Garrett Crochet, have secondary pitches to complement the big fastball. The final evolution of the big lefty is the one who has a good fastball, a breaking pitch, and a devastating changeup. That\u2019s Tarik Skubal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ragan\u2019s fastball isn\u2019t as overpowering as Skubal\u2019s, but his changeup is nearly as good. He uses the pitch 24% of the time against righties, getting swinging strikes on almost 30% of his offerings. He does it with a 44% zone rate on the pitch, so even when it\u2019s in hittable locations, opponents can\u2019t touch it. It wasn\u2019t just a small sample size fluke, either. Righties whiffed at a similar rate in 2024 when the pitch accounted for even more of his arsenal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not just the changeup, though. His fastball averages about 95 mph, reaching 99 mph at times. The shape isn\u2019t an outlier, but it exhibits two-plane movement and misses bats thanks to velocity and command. He throws the pitch about 50% of the time for a strike rate in the high 60s to righties. Last season, the swinging strike rate was 18% against them, though his 2024 mark of 14% is probably a more realistic expectation. For reference, Skubal\u2019s 2025 mark was the next best among qualifiers at 16.2%; Garrett Crochet came in third at 14.5%. It\u2019s a dominant fastball.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But wait, there\u2019s more. Ragans features a curveball and slider against righties as well. The curveball was used mostly in early counts, but he occasionally spiked one in two-strike counts as well. The strike rate was abysmal at about 50%, but nobody made hard contact against it either. It faded from his repertoire as the season progressed; I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see it disappear entirely in 2026. The slider, however, was great. It was almost exclusively a putaway pitch, and it did exactly that. The swinging strike rate was massive at 23% against righties. That number will also come down, like the fastball, but it\u2019s a great offering nonetheless.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n What about lefties, though? Opponents tend to stack their lineups with righties against Ragans, despite him having reverse platoon splits. His fastball doesn\u2019t miss bats at nearly the same rate, and he doesn\u2019t use the changeup that\u2019s such a weapon against righties. His slider is good, but there isn\u2019t enough in the arsenal for him to throw strikes with. Is there a world in which he can throw the changeup in the zone to same-handed hitters? The Red Sox don\u2019t throw same-handed changeups, but it could be an option. He could add a sinker; it worked for Crochet. It also might not matter that much. There\u2019s probably some selection bias at play here. He doesn\u2019t see many lefties, so the ones who do remain in the lineup are probably the best of the best. The group of lefties that hit against Ragans posted a cumulative .760 OPS on the season, higher than the league mark of .719. That\u2019s probably not sound statistical analysis, but you get the point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So, why was his ERA so high? It\u2019s pretty simple, actually. He was hurt. In May, he had two starts where he allowed four runs over five innings. Each start featured decreased velocity. He hit the IL after the second of the two poor outings, and when he returned, he gave up five runs in three innings, with his velocity still lacking. He again hit the IL, but pitched well in his final three starts when he returned in September. Chalk it up to a lost season in which he never got a chance to get his legs under him. Health is a concern, but he\u2019s a pitcher, and health is a concern for every pitcher. He\u2019s good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWho is he and where does he come from?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n