The Mets activated Ronny Paulino today, quieting speculation that there was some sort of karmic Lost scheme to keep him off the big-league roster all year, perhaps because Jacob needed him for some task that would not at all be adequately explained by the end of the series WHY? I INVESTED SO MUCH TIME IN THIS PLEASE GIVE ME SOMETHING BETTER THAN A CORK!

You may recall that Paulino mashes lefties. Specifically, he can boast a career .338/.390/.491 line against southpaws, better than everyone on the club who isn’t regularly in the middle of the batting order. That means Paulino, on days when he doesn’t start, trumps Scott Hairston as a pinch-hitting option against lefties late in games.

Some managers, we’ve seen, are reluctant to ever use backup catchers in pinch-hitting situations out of fear that something will happen to the starting catcher and then they’ll be left with, say, Chin-Lung Hu in the tools of ignorance. But — knock wood and everything — how often does that really happen? Here’s hoping Terry Collins proves willing to turn to Paulino when he needs a big hit against a southpaw, especially because (and I know it’s a small sample and he’s really not anything like this bad) I’m getting awful sick of watching Scott Hairston flail at every pitch.

Anyway, that doesn’t have a hell of a lot to do with the conclusion of this post — the one stated in the headline — except that we’re talking platoon splits and pinch hitters, and we watched pinch-hitter Willie Harris whiff (on a really nasty looking pitch, to his credit) to end last night’s game.

There are a lot more right-handed relievers than left-handed ones, and the Mets’ bench is ill-equipped to handle them whenever Daniel Murphy is in the starting lineup. Jason Pridie bats lefty, but he has never hit much at any level.

Harris has a career .245/.333/.360 split against righties, so it’s actually possible Justin Turner is a better option.  But since as we know, managers totally <3 lefty-righty matchups, the Mets might want to look for a lefty bench bat better than Harris.

Problem is, the best lefty hitters the Mets have in Triple-A are Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Lucas Duda and Fernando Martinez, young players that the organization certainly wants playing regularly. The others are Jesus Feliciano and Russ Adams, neither of whom seems likely to outperform Harris.

I recognize I’m quibbling about the last spot on the roster, and ideally the Mets will find ways to win games that don’t involve relying on pinch hitters. Plus I have no idea what type of lefty-hitting talent is available from outside the organization. But if Angel Pagan is going to play almost every day when he returns — as he should — and Hairston can back up center field in a pinch, and if the Mets have Murphy, Turner and Hu to play second base, then Harris’ primary role is as the team’s top lefty bat off the bench. And it strikes me that you can probably find someone better fit for that job.