Despite Carlos Santana's Great Showing, Fielding Bible Awards Show Twins' Weakness

[Matthew Trueblood]

The industry's truest markers of defensive excellence were handed out last week, but the voting for them only reveals that the Minnesota Twins lack excellent fielders.

Image courtesy of © Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Though the Gold Gloves get far more attention, the Fielding Bible Awards have become by far the better platform on which the best fielders in MLB are honored each year. Whereas the Gold Gloves are voted on by coaches and managers (who often show halfhearted interest in the process and are often ignorant of some things going on outside their own rosters) on shallow ballots, the Fielding Bible Awards are decided by the votes of 16 experts who work in the public sphere, much like the MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Awards. Each voter completes a 10-player ballot at each position.

Rather than an NL and an AL winner, there is only one Fielding Bible Award per position, plus a Multi-Position Award—an innovation started by the Fielding Bibles before it was introduced as part of the Gold Gloves. However, Sports Info Solutions—the progenitor and sponsor of the awards—releases the full voting results, so we can see who came close to winning an award, as well as who actually did. It's much more indicative of a great defensive season to finish second or third in Fielding Bible voting than to win a Gold Glove.

Alas, the Twins didn't do especially well in this year's voting. That, perhaps, is to be expected. The 2024 Minnesota Twins were not a good defensive team. They finished with -20 Defensive Runs Saved, sixth-worst in MLB, and the voting for Fielding Bible honors reflects the collective ineptitude at an individual level. Let's run down the handful of notable results for the team.

First, the good news—literally. First baseman Carlos Santana was the only true defensive bright spot on the Twins this season, and he finished third in Fielding Bible Award voting at the cold corner. Matt Olson of Atlanta won, and Arizona's Christian Walker finished second, but in a system in which 160 would be a perfect score for a unanimous winter, there was no runaway in that contest. Olson got 142 vote points, Walker 132, and Santana tucked in close behind at 126. It was almost a toss-up among the three, and Santana led the AL in the balloting.

Not only did Santana not win, though, but no other Minnesota infielder came anywhere near it. The Twins didn't manage so much as a 10th-place vote for any player at third base, shortstop, or second base, and Christian Vázquez finished 11th with 18 vote points at catcher. A healthy Carlos Correa might have put himself in the mix, but since winning a Fielding Bible prize in 2021, Correa hasn't even made the top 10 in any of his three seasons with Minnesota. Vázquez is an adequate defender in a relatively low-volume role, so his placement feels appropriate. The bigger problems for the Twins are that, when Correa was hurt and when Vázquez had the day off, they were using even worse defenders at those crucial positions. Meanwhile, none of their various options at second or third base was anywhere close to getting meaningful support.

In right field voting, Max Kepler represented the Twins relatively strongly, finishing seventh. He was the only outfielder to receive votes. Byron Buxton had an exceptionally healthy season, by his unfortunate standards for that, but he's a greatly diminished defender and was not among the 17 center fielders who got votes. That the team has so much money still committed to Correa and Buxton, given their overall payroll picture and the decline in each player's non-batting value over the last two seasons, is discouraging.

Willi Castro did collect a few votes for the Multi-Position Fielding Bible Award. Unlike his hilariously high standing in Gold Glove voting, though, he finished 17th in Fielding Bible balloting, a much better reflection of the way his lack of positive value at any one position eats into the value of his versatility. No Twins pitcher got any support, one year after three of the team's hurlers (Pablo López, Bailey Ober, and Sonny Gray) finished in the top 11. 

As the team tries to reshape its roster this winter, shoring up their defense should be a top priority. With Santana and Kepler due to become free agents in a few days, there's a strong case to be made that Minnesota currently has the worst collection of fielders in baseball. It will take some bold, creative action to solve that problem, but if they don't, they'll repeat the bitter disappointment of 2024 in 2025.

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[old nurse]

Byron Buxton played 89 games in CF, good for 22 most in baseball. I guess to the voters actually being on the field matters.  

[bean5302]

The Twins' defense is a weakness from the eye test and the metric I trust the most. Comparing OAA to DRS and UZR, Minnesota's fielders added anywhere from about 0.00 to 0.20 to the runs allowed of their pitchers. It might not sound like much at first, but it means the Twins' defense allowed their opponents to score 1 extra run every 5th game by UZR. It's a big deal as a single run scored has a massive impact on the likely outcome of the average game.
OAA thinks Minnesota's defense was league average ranked #17 at 0 runs saved or lost.
DRS has it ranked 25th with -20 runs and
UZR has the Twins dead last in all of MLB at -30.5 runs.

Carlos Santana gets the accolades as a defensive savant this past season, especially around these parts, since it's a positive for a Twins site. You can see how wild the DRS/OAA metrics are compared to UZR/150, and the trends. In general, I think Santana is an average-ish 1B. Losing him isn't a big deal defensively. The bigger issue is the error rates for the infielders and the lack of athleticism at 2B. Center field defense is the biggest problem in the outfield as the Twins haven't got anything for the 80-100 games Buxton will not play.

[RpR]

It is amazing how often you show your dislike for Santana. 🤬

[tony&rodney]

At the end of the year I felt that going into the offseason the Twins needed to improve their defense as the #1 goal. Because of the sluggishness of the roster overall, it also seems like trades will be the best manner to accomplish the goal. It is time for Falvey to wake up.

[Schmoeman5]

4 hours ago, bean5302 said:

The Twins' defense is a weakness from the eye test and the metric I trust the most. Comparing OAA to DRS and UZR, Minnesota's fielders added anywhere from about 0.00 to 0.20 to the runs allowed of their pitchers. It might not sound like much at first, but it means the Twins' defense allowed their opponents to score 1 extra run every 5th game by UZR. It's a big deal as a single run scored has a massive impact on the likely outcome of the average game.
OAA thinks Minnesota's defense was league average ranked #17 at 0 runs saved or lost.
DRS has it ranked 25th with -20 runs and
UZR has the Twins dead last in all of MLB at -30.5 runs.

Carlos Santana gets the accolades as a defensive savant this past season, especially around these parts, since it's a positive for a Twins site. You can see how wild the DRS/OAA metrics are compared to UZR/150, and the trends. In general, I think Santana is an average-ish 1B. Losing him isn't a big deal defensively. The bigger issue is the error rates for the infielders and the lack of athleticism at 2B. Center field defense is the biggest problem in the outfield as the Twins haven't got anything for the 80-100 games Buxton will not play.

What he said. 

[bean5302]

4 hours ago, RpR said:

It is amazing how often you show your dislike for Santana. 🤬

Santana's fine. A solid 2 WAR player last year if you throw out the unstable SSS defensive metrics.

[JD-TWINS]

I don’t really have any interest in reviewing the graphs over 9 seasons…….it seems that the author is in agreement that the Bible Awards are based upon real metrics…….Santana was recognized as 3rd across baseball & 1st in the American League. This information seems to have him well above “average” at 1B defensively, without any local bias being involved.

[Trov]

17 hours ago, bean5302 said:

The Twins' defense is a weakness from the eye test and the metric I trust the most. Comparing OAA to DRS and UZR, Minnesota's fielders added anywhere from about 0.00 to 0.20 to the runs allowed of their pitchers. It might not sound like much at first, but it means the Twins' defense allowed their opponents to score 1 extra run every 5th game by UZR. It's a big deal as a single run scored has a massive impact on the likely outcome of the average game.
OAA thinks Minnesota's defense was league average ranked #17 at 0 runs saved or lost.
DRS has it ranked 25th with -20 runs and
UZR has the Twins dead last in all of MLB at -30.5 runs.

Carlos Santana gets the accolades as a defensive savant this past season, especially around these parts, since it's a positive for a Twins site. You can see how wild the DRS/OAA metrics are compared to UZR/150, and the trends. In general, I think Santana is an average-ish 1B. Losing him isn't a big deal defensively. The bigger issue is the error rates for the infielders and the lack of athleticism at 2B. Center field defense is the biggest problem in the outfield as the Twins haven't got anything for the 80-100 games Buxton will not play.

If you are point to his career as a whole at first then yeah he appears to fall into average, however, if you look at last year, which is what the article is about, he was clearly above average by every measure you put on your graph.  His UZR/150 was over 2, league average was like 1.  His DRS 8, league average just above 6. His OAA was around 13, league was just above 4.  Now that last one is an odd stat by name when the name is Outs Above Average, but either way he was well above the league average. 

So by all accounts, last year he was well above average defender.  Historically, no he has graded out as pretty average, however, this was about just last year.

[Trov]

15 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

At the end of the year I felt that going into the offseason the Twins needed to improve their defense as the #1 goal. Because of the sluggishness of the roster overall, it also seems like trades will be the best manner to accomplish the goal. It is time for Falvey to wake up.

You need to balance defense and offense.  Very few guys are elite at both.  Buck at times had been, but now his defense has dropped and his offense has as well.  CC has shown in the past both, but injuries and age like Buck has dragged that down.  Last year we accepted less defense for guys like Julien, and Lewis because their offense was so elite.  This year, they were not elite on offense, Julien was well below average.  

You can go out and get elite defenders, but if they cannot hit at all, then what is the point?  You can get the 8 best defenders in the league, but if they all hit well below average it will not work out well.  If you have amazing hitters that are around average or just below average you will normally take that.  Problem is, our offense did not make up for the poor defense last year. 

[DJL44]

I agree that improved up the middle defense will help with run prevention. 2B needs to improve and more Willi Castro might be part of the solution. CF should have Emmanuel Rodriguez and Keirsey backing up Buxton instead of Margot, Castro and Martin. A full, healthy season for Correa and Lewis would help.

[RpR]

27 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I agree that improved up the middle defense will help with run prevention. 2B needs to improve and more Willi Castro might be part of the solution. CF should have Emmanuel Rodriguez and Keirsey backing up Buxton instead of Margot, Castro and Martin. A full, healthy season for Correa and Lewis would help.

Rodriguez has not shown even average skill at Center Field.

Hopefully Kiersey will shine in Spring Training.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Here's an idea to improve the infield defense. Maybe the Twins can trade Manuel Margot and a minor leaguer whose name I have forgotten, to the Dodgers for minor league SS Gold Glove winner, Noah Miller.

[tony&rodney]

3 minutes ago, RpR said:

Rodriguez has not shown even average skill at Center Field.

 

Have you seen Emmanuel play? Once?

Veterans often have a jump on younger players because of experience and thus one gets a player  like Carlos Santana and his fine defense at the age of 38. However, a young player can also play defense, witness Andruw Jones when he came on the scene for Atlanta.

Emmanuel Rodriguez is a very good defensive centerfielder (not as good as Jones). He gets great jumps, has good speed, and has a strong accurate throwing arm. All of these I can say I have seen while watching him play the last two years. Scouts and writers who travel around watching minor league players for a living have nothing but extreme positive platitudes for Emmanuel as a defensive player. Your comment cannot be supported by a single scout, writer, or objective viewer.

One can criticize the strikeouts and too patient approach EmRod displays as a hitter and be worried about the array of injuries, but there has yet to be a reason to suspect the glove.

[LambchoP]

I think one of the teams priorities needs to be getting faster and more athletic, and improving our terrible defense. We have so many so called "bat first" guys who are slow, have little range and no TRUE defensive home, since Rocco wants everyone to be a super utility player now. Losing Farmer and especially Margot will help, but we'll be taking a huge defensive hit at first base in losing Santana and probably replacing him with Miranda, Severino or Keaschal. It'd be great to sign Christian Walker or even Goldschmidt to something like a two year deal, but we all know ownership is not adding to our roster this year.

[RpR]

12 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Have you seen Emmanuel play? Once?

Veterans often have a jump on younger players because of experience and thus one gets a player  like Carlos Santana and his fine defense at the age of 38. However, a young player can also play defense, witness Andruw Jones when he came on the scene for Atlanta.

Emmanuel Rodriguez is a very good defensive centerfielder (not as good as Jones). He gets great jumps, has good speed, and has a strong accurate throwing arm. All of these I can say I have seen while watching him play the last two years. Scouts and writers who travel around watching minor league players for a living have nothing but extreme positive platitudes for Emmanuel as a defensive player. Your comment cannot be supported by a single scout, writer, or objective viewer.

One can criticize the strikeouts and too patient approach EmRod displays as a hitter and be worried about the array of injuries, but there has yet to be a reason to suspect the glove.

Kiersey Jr.

His fielding is not getting better and this is minor league.

[RpR]

15 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

 

Posted 4 minutes ago

I think one of the teams priorities needs to be getting faster and more athletic, and improving our terrible defense....Losing Farmer and especially Margot will help,

Losing Farmer will help with defense?

Keeping Julien and Lee far, far away from the infield will help.

Farmer was not as good at 2nd as his usual last year, but between Lee, Julien and him, he was easily far better than they.

[Aerodeliria]

Time and time again, in tight situations, it is defense that bites you. The Yankees learned it in one inning....

[LambchoP]

5 minutes ago, RpR said:

Losing Farmer will help with defense?

Keeping Julien and Lee far, far away from the infield will help.

Farmer was not as good at 2nd as his usual last year, but between Lee, Julien and him, he was easily far better than they.

I think Julien needs to stay in the minors, maybe back to single A to re-work his swing. Needs to learn a position and learn it right before he should ever be in the majors again. I think a healthy Lee will be fine. He looked great at 3rd and decent at 2nd. It does worry me that he's so slow, but you could say that about most of our team.

[PatPfund]

Got a good chuckle from @tarheeltwinsfan's comment. Though as a refresher the minor leaguer you can't remember is Rayne Doncon, who is similar in age and development as Miller, but is definitely a better hitter (starred at Ft Myers '24, solid at Cedar Rapids).

A really big part of our defensive issues can be laid at the manager's feet. Rocco has his strengths, but a major weakness is his passivity when it comes to pushing fundamentals especially with his veterans.

You can't grant talent through boring but important drills, but you can establish a floor and teamwork that gets the most out of the present skills. Rocco also loves tinkering by moving people around all over (even pissing off Lewis late in '24 by moving him to 2B), and it messes with the development of a peak defense. Not everyone is Castro; Austen Martin is an example of someone who would benefit from just playing outfield (and playing more often). This team could use an infusion in talent, but even more it could use a sound foundation of fundamental play, and some extra focus on specific position skills.

[DJL44]

53 minutes ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

minor league SS Gold Glove winner, Noah Miller.

They don't need to roster a player who hits worse than Christian Vazquez.

[DJL44]

32 minutes ago, RpR said:

His fielding is not getting better and this is minor league.

Since your data has no labels it's impossible to determine what you think you're showing. You did answer the question of whether you have ever seen Rodriguez play defense with a definite NO.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, RpR said:

Rodriguez has not shown even average skill at Center Field..

While I suspect the metrics don't exist for your assertion, it's fair to point out Fangraphs has Emma as 40 grade speed, and even MLB.com has him as 55 grade. Neither are acceptable to play CF at an adequate level. Rodriguez had so little last year so the metrics available on him are very small sample size at 275 innings so they're not all that reliable, but let's compare him to his peers with the most innings at CF by team.

RF9 - Texas League AA
3.23 - a29 Connor Hollis (San Diego Padres)
3.16 - a25 Daulton Shuffield (Minnesota Twins)
2.98 - a24 Kenedy Corona (Houston Astros)
----------------------------------------------------------
2.91 - a21 Emmanuel Rodriguez
2.78 - a23 Wilderd Patino (Arizona Diamondbacks*)
2.72 - a28 Jared Oliva (Seattle Mariners)
2.71 - a24 Denzel Clarke (Oakland Athletics)
----------------------------------------------------------
2.54 - a27 Kellen Strahm (Texas Rangers)
2.51 - a27 Bryan Torres (St. Louis Cardinals)
2.43 - a23 Jose Ramos (Lo$ Angele$ Dodger$)
-----------------------------------------------------------
2.23 - a23 Diego Hernandez (Kansas City Royals)

Just like when I did the AAA CF comparison, the biggest thing which jumps out at me is the utter and complete dearth of potential MLB center fielders at the high minors level. Standard of deviation = 0.29. Rodriguez's defense was probably okay in CF, but again, super SSS. It's worth noting most of the players at AA had sample sizes smaller than ideal. Rodriguez is scouted as having a strong arm so that might have contributed.

[Schmoeman5]

13 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Santana's fine. A solid 2 WAR player last year if you throw out the unstable SSS defensive metrics.

That you throw out there when it's touting one of YOUR boys and how great they are

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

I don’t really have any interest in reviewing the graphs over 9 seasons…….it seems that the author is in agreement that the Bible Awards are based upon real metrics…….Santana was recognized as 3rd across baseball & 1st in the American League. This information seems to have him well above “average” at 1B defensively, without any local bias being involved.

 

2 hours ago, Trov said:

If you are point to his career as a whole at first then yeah he appears to fall into average, however, if you look at last year, which is what the article is about, he was clearly above average by every measure you put on your graph.  His UZR/150 was over 2, league average was like 1.  His DRS 8, league average just above 6. His OAA was around 13, league was just above 4.  Now that last one is an odd stat by name when the name is Outs Above Average, but either way he was well above the league average. 

So by all accounts, last year he was well above average defender.  Historically, no he has graded out as pretty average, however, this was about just last year.

DRS and OAA are legitimate metrics, but defensive metrics are unreliable in small sample sizes. DRS is especially prone to inaccurate values without huge sample sizes because of its SSS multiplier system. OAA seems just as prone to wild shifts in value from year to year. Players don't go from elite to terrible back to elite from year to year over their careers. I felt like an image showing the reality of how unstable DRS and OAA are would be valuable.

UZR/150 (which is also sketchy in SSS) is at least fairly consistent showing Santana as around league average year to year with a slow decline you'd expect from an aging player.

[Maybe Next Year]

Perhaps a manager and coaching staff that preach and teach defensive fundamentals would help. 

[RpR]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Since your data has no labels it's impossible to determine what you think you're showing. You did answer the question of whether you have ever seen Rodriguez play defense with a definite NO.

The fielding percentage at the end of the stats, is all that matters there.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

While I suspect the metrics don't exist for your assertion, it's fair to point out Fangraphs has Emma as 40 grade speed, and even MLB.com has him as 55 grade. Neither are acceptable to play CF at an adequate level. Rodriguez had so little last year so the metrics available on him are very small sample size at 275 innings so they're not all that reliable, but let's compare him to his peers with the most innings at CF by team.

Quote

Rodriguez will stay in center field for now, but as an average runner who will likely continue to get bigger, he projects as an above-average defender in a corner outfield spot. - Baseball America

Quote

Rodriguez will play all of the 2024 season at age 21 and he’s still an above-average runner who can steal a base. He’s continued to show an ability to stick in center field, but if he slows down a tick, his plus arm will play just fine in right. His power profile would work there as well, with the first order of business being turning in a full, healthy season. - Baseball Savant

Aaron Judge has been playable in CF despite below average foot speed. I'm not going to compare his bat to Judge but his glove might be similar.

[tony&rodney]

Anyone who has not seen a player actually play the game on numerous occasions has almost no credibility to discuss their fielding. Stratomatic is fun as are all types of statistics, but they do not tell you as much as what occurs on the field. 

[bean5302]

15 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Aaron Judge has been playable in CF despite below average foot speed. I'm not going to compare his bat to Judge but his glove might be similar.

Thanks for agreeing with me.