MLB’s Best Defenses, Most Athletic Defenses, and Most Intelligent Defenses

Photo Credit: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Modern defensive metrics vary significantly in their approach to evaluating fielders. Fangraphs’ Runs Above Average (RAA) and defensive Wins Above Replacement (dWAR) measure how a fielder performs relative to where he was positioned for a given play. On the other hand, Baseball Reference’s Total Zone Fielding Runs Above Average (Rtot) and dWAR measure how well a fielder performs relative to the where the fielder is expected to be positioned for a given play.

In essence, Fangraphs’ dWAR, which I’ll refer to as fdWAR, is a measure of athleticism, whereas Baseball Reference’s dWAR (let’s call this bdWAR) is a measure of game impact, including a team’s positioning.

In this analysis I’ll take a look at how the 30 MLB teams ranked in each of bdWAR (overall defensive performance), fdWAR (athleticism), and the difference between bdWAR and fdWAR (positioning value) for the 2023 season.

Overall Defensive Performance

Table 1 shows bdWAR for the 30 MLB teams in 2023, measuring overall defensive performance.

Table 1: bdWAR for the 30 MLB teams in 2023, measuring overall defensive performance.

As seen in Table 1, the Brewers, Diamondbacks, and Rangers were the top three defensive teams in 2023, whereas the White Sox, A’s, Angels, and Cardinals were the bottom four.

Six out of the top eight defensive teams made the playoffs and eleven of the twelve worst defensive teams missed the playoffs.

Athletisism

Table 2 shows the fdWAR, which measures athleticism, for the 30 MLB teams in 2023.

Table 2: fdWAR for the 30 MLB teams in 2023, measuring athleticism.

The Brewers, Diamondbacks, and Royals were the most athletic defenses in 2023, whereas the Marlins, Reds, and Red Sox were the least athletic.

The Brewers and Diamondbacks made the most of their athleticism by pairing it with good positioning, reflected in their high bdWARs. The Reds and Red Sox also positioned themselves well defensively, but that was not enough to overcome their lack of athleticism, as both teams still had negative bdWARs.

Positioning Value

Table 3 shows the positioning value (bdWAR minus fdWAR) for each of the 30 MLB teams in 2023.

Table 3: Positioning Wins (the difference between the team’s bdWAR and fdWAR) for each of the 30 MLB teams in 2023

The Orioles, Rockies, and Dodgers positioned themselves the best in 2023 and the Royals, Giants, A’s, White Sox, Angels, and Cardinals positioned themselves the worst.

The Orioles, Dodgers, and Rockies’ fantastic defensive alignments allowed them to get great results on the field with not-so-athletic defenses. The Royals and Giants, however, were not able to get positive results on the field despite having athletic defenders, due to their poor positioning.