One of the remaining items on Rick Hahn's holiday list is getting a capable right-handed bat for the bench for the White Sox for next season. Like all the fixer-upper shows, we have to start with our ideal lefty masher. This is the guy that would tick off several things we'd like to see. For me, the ideal lefty masher has a couple of key characteristics.

Excellent splits against lefties. Although the slugging part of masher is nice, a good wRC+ works too.

Position flexibility with a focus on the infield. Since Melky Cabrera and Avisail Garcia are both righties and Adam Eaton had a 108 wRC+ off lefties, having a lefty masher in the outfield isn't that much of a bonus.

For me, this ideal guy looks a bit like Scott Van Slyke. He hit .315/.415/.630 against lefties. That's a 193 wRC+ against, good for fourth behind Victor Martinez, Jose Abreu, and Jose Bautista. He can play all three outfield positions and can fill in a first base too. Center field is a bit of a stretch, but, to give Eaton the occasional day off, he'd do OK. The problem here is that this is like the fixer-upper TV shows. The Dodgers still have four years of control. Even after the Matt Kemp trade, the Dodgers have a full outfield, but Van Slyke would still be expensive give that wRC+ against lefties. This would certainly cost the Sox a top prospect which seems to be something that Rick Hahn is trying to avoid.

Of the outstanding remaining free agents, Nori Aoki has the wRC+ against lefties of 150 last season is the highest. There are some problems here. First, he's a lefty. Second, his .360 slugging percentage isn't going to wow anyone (I can already hear the "jabroni" cries). He can probably be best described as "pesty" against lefties. Last season, he hit .363/.428/.435 against lefties and is .319/.371/.405 for his career against lefties.

Up next, is a true right-hander and an infielder. Rickie Weeks had a $14.5 million option declined by the Brewers at the end of the season making him a free agent. Over his three-year deal, he's made $31 million but put up -1.3 bWAR and 1.7 fWAR. Last season, he became the right hand side of a platoon at second for the Brewers. That was fairly successful since he hit .256/.361/.504 against lefties with a wRC+ of 142 against lefties. For his career, he's hit .261/.385/.448 with a wRC+ of 128 against lefties. There is a down side to all of this. Weeks' defense at second base has degraded to the point that he had -62 defensive runs saved (think -6.2 WAR) over the previous three seasons.

After Weeks, the free agent infielder with the highest wRC+ of 2014 against lefties is Gordon Beckham at 118.

So, if a free agent is available that can fill this role, we're back to the trade route again. While Ben Zobrist is full-time player and a switch hitter, he had a wRC+ of 153 against lefties last season. As someone entering his 34-year-old season, he could take the right-handed platoon at second base with Sanchez and fill in somewhere else against righties. This is all assuming he's gotten past this.

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Overall, there isn't a great answer to the lefty-masher problem. The best available free agents all have serious drawbacks. There are probably some available for trade, but they could require the Sox to part with some of the top prospects they've been working to build up. On the positive side, we're all worrying about a bench player that might not start as often as the backup catcher.