This Defensive Metric Highlights Improvements for Twins in the Field

[Cody Christie]

Minnesota failed to win any Gold Gloves this season, but there were plenty of improved defensive performances. A respected fielding metric from SABR helps illustrate the team's surprising proficiency with the glove.

 

Image courtesy of Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Defensive metrics have come a long way over the last decade. With Statcast tracking every batted ball, the amount of information available to fans is at an all-time high. One metric developed by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is called the SABR Defensive Index (SDI). 

According to SABR's website, the SDI "draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts." Since 2013, MLB has used SDI as part of the process for selecting Gold Glove winners. The rankings below are the final rankings for the 2022 campaign.  

Pitcher (AL Ranking): No Twins Pitchers Qualify
Minnesota needed pitchers to throw more innings to qualify for the SDI leaderboard. Former Twin Jose Berrios has been known for his athletic ability, which helps him to field his position. He finished tied for fifth in the AL. According to SDI, Cleveland's Shane Bieber ranked as the best fielder, and he won the Gold Glove. 

Catcher (AL Ranking): Gary Sanchez 0.6 SDI (12th)
Sanchez took over the full-time catching duties after Ryan Jeffers broke his thumb. Minnesota worked hard with Sanchez to improve his receiving this year. Last season, he ranked as the AL's worst catcher with a -8.2 SDI, and there are four players worse than him in 2022. Jeffers' last posted SDI total was 2.0, but his injury meant he didn't have enough innings to be on the leaderboard. 

First Base (AL Ranking): Luis Arraez 2.1 SDI (1st)
Arraez was a Gold Glove finalist at first base and led the league in SDI. However, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.was awarded the Gold Glove even though his SDI total was 1.9 points lower than Arraez. In the second half, Arraez moved from a -0.5 SDI to the league's best total while also playing through injury. It was a terrific defensive season for a player with limited first-base experience entering the 2022 campaign. 

Second Base (AL Ranking): Jorge Polanco -2.7 SDI (13th)
Polanco gained rave reviews during his first season at second base in 2021, but the 2022 season was a different story. Only three qualified second basemen finished with a lower SDI. Polanco dealt with injuries during the season, which likely hindered his defensive performance. Minnesota can hope that Polanco is healthier in 2023 and can move back up the SDI leaderboard. 

Third Base (AL Ranking): Gio Urshela 0.8 SDI (T-5th)
Urshela's defense was one of the most significant in-season improvements for the Twins. At the season's midway point, only one AL third baseman ranked lower than Urshela. He shot up the rankings in the second half and finished tied for fifth with Houston's Alex Bregman. Former Twin Josh Donaldson finished second among the AL's third basemen with a 7.3 SDI. 

Shortstop (AL Ranking): Carlos Correa 1.6 SDI (9th)
Correa was a Gold Glove finalist, but his SDI ranking was a roller coaster throughout the season. His early season defensive numbers were disappointing, but he slowly climbed the SDI leaderboard and ranked in the AL's top-five shortstops at the end of August. His bat was terrific in September, but he posted a negative SDI and dropped four spots in the rankings. Houston's Jeremy Pena, Correa's replacement, became the first rookie shortstop to win the Gold Glove. 

Left Field (AL Ranking): Nick Gordon 0.1 SDI (5th)
Gordon surprised the Twins in multiple ways this season on his way to becoming the team's most-improved player. He'd played infield for most of his professional career, but Minnesota needed him as an outfielder. According to SDI, he finished the year in the top 5 among AL left fielders, which is a testament to his athletic ability. 

Center Field (AL Ranking): No Twins Players Qualified
Byron Buxton missed time at the season's end and started nearly 37% of his games as a designated hitter. When healthy, he is among baseball's best defensive outfielders. The AL Central had arguably the league's best centerfield defenders, with Cleveland's Myles Straw and Kansas City's Michael A. Taylor finishing 1-2 in the SDI rankings. 

Right Field (AL Ranking): Max Kepler 6.3 SDI (2nd)
Like Correa and Arreaz, Kepler was a Gold Glove finalist. Kepler slowly increased his SDI rankings throughout the season but needed more to catch Houston's Kyle Tucker. In the final rankings, Kepler was 0.8 SDI points behind Tucker, who was awarded the Gold Glove. Kepler's defense has become his calling card. Will the Twins look to trade him this winter?

Which rankings above surprise you the most? Did Arraez get robbed of a Gold Glove? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

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[Doctor Gast]

Sanchez surprized me the most. I don't think that he should be rated that high. Looks like Arraez has found his position, his high SDI is impressive. Of coarse the GG can't be judged on SDI alone but how well he handles his position which includes more things. But in Vlady's case it's his bat.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

Going to be awfully hard for anybody to say moving Arraez off first would be a plus move for the Twins.  He has earned the right to be there next Spring.

Correa probably got votes more for his historical defense than actual work for this year.

 

[jmlease1]

30 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Going to be awfully hard for anybody to say moving Arraez off first would be a plus move for the Twins.  He has earned the right to be there next Spring.

Correa probably got votes more for his historical defense than actual work for this year.

 

i think the best argument for moving Arraez off 1B is just to give his aching knees more rest. but despite not having great height/reach and limited familiarity with the position he did well.

Correa certainly passed the eye test for me and I wasn't surprised to see him ranking high and getting GG consideration. 

[mnfireman]

I think it will be interesting to see how SDI rankings will be affected by the elimination of the shift starting next year, or does SDI already take that into account? 

I will admit to being surprised by Arraez's ranking, he looked very below average to me in the 2 dozen or so games I was able to watch. 

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

i think the best argument for moving Arraez off 1B is just to give his aching knees more rest

So, DH only? He's too good of a defender for that.

[jmlease1]

47 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

So, DH only? He's too good of a defender for that.

I wouldn't DH him only, but I look at him as a guy I want to play 140+ games per season as healthy as possible. That might mean he only plays 80 games in the field as opposed to 100+? He certainly is starting to look like he's more than competent at 1B, which doesn't hurt a bit.

[mikelink45]

I just do not think much of defensive metrics - the eye is still the best.  Interesting to me how Houston got the SS rating after Correa left.  Is Correa overrated?   Polanco so low at 2B after being so low at SS - maybe he just is not a good defender.  

[RpR]

40 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I just do not think much of defensive metrics - the eye is still the best.  Interesting to me how Houston got the SS rating after Correa left.  Is Correa overrated?   Polanco so low at 2B after being so low at SS - maybe he just is not a good defender.  

Sadly Polanco is pretty much the type of infielder many would be happy with , good bat, defense meh.

[stringer bell]

Polanco was good last year and if he’s healthy, he will be fine at second. The Twins allowed fewer unearned than most. Team ERA was higher than the mean, but runs allowed was below the mean. The team they put out on Opening Day was pretty good defensively.  Replacements not so much.  

[mnfireman]

Twins - 19 of 30 teams in earn runs, 19 of 30 in ERA.

MLB average runs allowed 632, Twins 639.

MLB average ERA 3.96, Twins ERA 3.98.

Don't know where you got your info.

[Rosterman]

Gordon putting up good numbers cements him as the fourth outfield. Can see Kirilloff/Buxton/Kepler still out there in 2023 with Larnach and Celestino joining Wallner as the fulltime Saints outfield and on-call.

Arraez the permanent first abseman? Well, we do have to play him somewhere.

Julien is opening eyes for the scond base job.

[DJL44]

This is the third or fourth defensive metric where Polanco rated poorly. He had an awful season in the field.

[theBOMisthebomb]

19 hours ago, mnfireman said:

I think it will be interesting to see how SDI rankings will be affected by the elimination of the shift starting next year, or does SDI already take that into account? 

I will admit to being surprised by Arraez's ranking, he looked very below average to me in the 2 dozen or so games I was able to watch. 

Just curious, how did he look very below average? I remember the bad throw and error at Oakland in 2021 to give away a game, that was at third base though. I think he went through a tough stretch around that same time in 2021 also in left field. What did you see very below average in 2022? 

[mnfireman]

22 minutes ago, theBOMisthebomb said:

Just curious, how did he look very below average? I remember the bad throw and error at Oakland in 2021 to give away a game, that was at third base though. I think he went through a tough stretch around that same time in 2021 also in left field. What did you see very below average in 2022? 

In the games I was able to watch he looked unsure on which plays to make and which to let go on hits to his right, he didn't leave the base on bad throws on several occasions, leading to errors and extra bases and I saw him have issues with throws in the dirt.

The first two issues can probably be addressed with coaching, but Arraez didn't show very soft hands as a 2B or 3B, so the third issue will probably continue.

[Bigfork Twins Guy]

The Sanchez ranking surprised me the most and yes, Arraez got robbed of a gold glove which is supposed to be all about fielding but funny, it seems every year some slugger with less than stellar fielding gets the gold glove.  That's a shame.

[stringer bell]

13 hours ago, mnfireman said:

Twins - 19 of 30 teams in earn runs, 19 of 30 in ERA.

MLB average runs allowed 632, Twins 639.

MLB average ERA 3.96, Twins ERA 3.98.

Don't know where you got your info.

The Twins allowed only 48 unearned runs, fifth in MLB. While the Twins were 19th in earned runs allowed, they were 14th in overall runs allowed. The average number of runs allowed is 694, the Twins allowed 684. Presuming official scoring is consistent, the Twins defense saved runs over an average defense.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

The Sanchez ranking surprised me the most and yes, Arraez got robbed of a gold glove which is supposed to be all about fielding but funny, it seems every year some slugger with less than stellar fielding gets the gold glove.  That's a shame.

I guess that if Arraez had played more games at first, I would have felt like he should have won the Gold Glove, but he only played 65 games at first.

[DJL44]

19 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

The Twins allowed only 48 unearned runs, fifth in MLB. While the Twins were 19th in earned runs allowed, they were 14th in overall runs allowed. The average number of runs allowed is 694, the Twins allowed 684. Presuming official scoring is consistent, the Twins defense saved runs over an average defense.

If you go to Baseball Reference and look up the team you will see an RField of 21 - which means they saved 21 runs above an average defense. 

[stringer bell]

17 hours ago, Rosterman said:

Gordon putting up good numbers cements him as the fourth outfield. Can see Kirilloff/Buxton/Kepler still out there in 2023 with Larnach and Celestino joining Wallner as the fulltime Saints outfield and on-call.

Arraez the permanent first abseman? Well, we do have to play him somewhere.

Julien is opening eyes for the scond base job.

I think Gordon is a better outfielder than infielder. I don’t think he’s great in center field, but he’s fine in left.
I think Larnach and Kirilloff (if healthy) are major league hitters and capable fielders and Kirilloff would be a better first baseman than Arraez. K & L just need to prove it on the field and they haven’t to this point.