Ranking the Minnesota Twins’ Worst Defenders Since 2000

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of Matt Blewett-Imagn Images

Sports Reference, home of Baseball Reference, is running a fun project this week, encouraging fans to “remember some players.” The idea is simple: instead of always focusing on Hall of Famers or MVPs, take a moment to appreciate the quirky, flawed, and sometimes frustrating players who shaped the fabric of baseball fandom.

With that in mind, I decided to put my own spin on the exercise. My first instinct was to jot down some of the greats of the last quarter-century (e.g. Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan), but those names are etched deep in Twins lore already. Instead, let’s highlight another side of Twins history: the players who made you hold your breath (for all the wrong reasons) whenever a ball came their way. Here are the nine worst defenders for the Twins since 2000, based on FanGraphs’ DEF metric and a little common sense.

9. Josh Willingham, LF
FanGraphs: -20.8 DEF
Nobody signed Willingham for his defense. The “Hammer” arrived in 2012 and immediately delivered 35 home runs, a Silver Slugger, and some much-needed pop in the Twins’ lineup. Unfortunately, his work in left field was as lumbering as it was uninspiring. Slow jumps and stiff routes didn’t stop him from being a fan favorite, but he was a liability with the glove.

8. Kurt Suzuki, C
FanGraphs: -23.8 DEF
Suzuki provided a steady veteran presence behind the plate, and his All-Star selection in 2014 was a memorable moment, especially catching Glen Perkins’s save in front of a packed Target Field. But Suzuki’s defensive shortcomings were apparent. He routinely allowed more stolen bases than any catcher in the league, and his arm wasn’t scaring anyone. Still, he found ways to stick, thanks to his on-base skills and clubhouse presence.

7. Jacque Jones, RF
FanGraphs: -25.3 DEF
At first glance, seeing Jones here might raise eyebrows. After all, he was a central piece in the early-2000s resurgence, posting strong offensive seasons and bringing energy to the top of the order. But defensive metrics weren’t kind to him. His long tenure in right field led to a significant accumulation of negative value. Still, his bat and personality helped overshadow the flaws.

6. Justin Morneau, 1B
FanGraphs: -63.2 DEF
The former MVP and face of the franchise was a steady hitter, but the metrics don’t love his glove. Morneau logged nearly 10,000 innings at first base, far more than almost anyone else on this list, which inflated the negative total. He was never a butcher, but rather slightly below average over the course of his long career. The sheer playing time pushes him up these rankings, though his bat will always define his legacy.

5. Miguel Sanó, 3B/1B
FanGraphs: -33.3 DEF (combined)
Sanó’s defensive journey mirrored his rollercoaster career. Signed as a shortstop, he slid down the defensive spectrum with each passing year. Third base didn’t stick, his outfield experiment was forgettable, and first base became his long-term home—though “home” might be generous. He had power in his bat, but his glove often left Twins fans wishing for a DH-only role.

4. Ryan Doumit, C
FanGraphs: -33.8 DEF
Doumit’s time in Minnesota was short but, defensively, unforgettable in the worst way. He was among the league’s worst catchers at throwing out runners, and advanced metrics like Defensive Runs Saved rated him harshly. In less than 900 innings behind the plate, he posted one of the ugliest defensive profiles in Twins history. He's become an infamous example of the importance of understanding pitch framing, because he was so bad that as soon as those numbers proliferated, he lost his place behind the dish. Per inning, it’s tough to find anyone worse.

3. Delmon Young, LF
FanGraphs: -62.8 DEF
Young’s defense was infamous. His routes were comically poor, his throws often sailed offline, and his effort level was, at best, inconsistent. He brought occasional offensive bursts, but in the field, fans often groaned before the ball even landed. Defensive stats back up the eye test, because Young’s glove was a drag on the roster.

2. Jason Kubel, RF/LF
FanGraphs: -65.8 DEF (combined)
Kubel was once a five-tool prospect, but a devastating knee injury in the Arizona Fall League derailed that trajectory. The speed and range he once had never returned, and he became a corner outfielder/DH type earlier than expected. His bat kept him in the lineup, but his glove remained a liability. He finishes with one of the lowest defensive WAR totals of any Twin in the modern era.

1. Michael Cuddyer, RF/1B
FanGraphs: -78.1 DEF (combined)
This one might sting. Cuddyer was a two-time All-Star, a leader in the clubhouse, and a versatile hitter who carved out a long MLB career. But defensively? The numbers are brutal. Whether in right field or at first base, he graded as well below average. While fans remember his professionalism and bat, his glove was consistently a drag. Baseball Reference backs it up with a -10.1 dWAR. He may have been beloved, but he was never smooth in the field. 

Defense isn’t everything, and many of these players had productive careers despite their shortcomings with the glove. But it’s worth remembering the moments that made fans cringe, too. That’s part of what makes baseball so much fun: the highs, the lows, and the players we’ll never forget (for better or worse).

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Do you agree with this ranking? Who would you include in your own list of the Twins’ worst defenders? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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[Patzky]

Your timing is as impeccable as a Joe Ryan rising fastball.

[Road trip]

This is a good list, and yes, many of the names on it are not a surprise.  The Twins have a long history of tolerating mediocre or worse gloves in players that could hit.

The top 10 list does seem to penalize longevity though, as DEF is cumulative.  Perhaps a "DEF/Games played" would be a better measure?   I suspect by doing this the order would look quite a bit different, with really bad defenders with relatively short Twins careers such as Delmon Young and Josh Willingham leaping over long time players like Cuddyer and Jones.

 

[The Great Hambino]

5 minutes ago, Road trip said:

This is a good list, and yes, many of the names on it are not a surprise.  The Twins have a long history of tolerating mediocre or worse gloves in players that could hit.

The top 10 list does seem to penalize longevity though, as DEF is cumulative.  Perhaps a "DEF/Games played" would be a better measure?   I suspect by doing this the order would look quite a bit different, with really bad defenders with relatively short Twins careers such as Delmon Young and Josh Willingham leaping over long time players like Cuddyer and Jones.

 

Good point about penalizing longevity.  Derek Jeter is massively overrated as a defender (he coasted a long way on reputation due to one heads up play in the playoffs and a purdy-looking jump throw), but is he the worst fielder of all time (as fielding runs in the bWAR calculation would suggest)?  No, not by a long shot.  In his case, it just means he was allowed to stay at SS for waaaaaaay too long.

I think it also penalizes, in a way, versatility.   Playing a position that is not your finest in order to help the team put its best lineup out there has some value that I think could be captured in some way.  I'm thinking about Cuddyer here

[Mai.K]

I remember Luis Arráez’s -7 OAA in 40 innings at third base in 2022 
terrible...

[Brett]

Too bad the advanced stats don’t go back 50 years. How would someone like Willie Norwood compare? Bombo Rivera?

Oh wait…Mickey Hatcher. That’s a comparison to see.

[RpR]

Just go to Baseball Ref. their stats are there.

[DJL44]

Quote

nine worst defenders for the Twins since 2000, based on FanGraphs’ DEF metric

Baseball Reference backs it up with a -10.1 dWAR. 

Neither DEF nor dWAR directly measures defense, Both DEF and dWAR include the positional replacement value. which means they will always favor a bad fielding SS over a good fielding 1B. What you're mainly measuring in your article is which position people played.

If you want actual defensive metrics, for Fangraphs you want OAA, FRV, DRS or UZR and for BBREF you want RField.

For example - Ryan Doumit was a legitimately terrible fielder, but he's been rated here partly by the 97 games he played as a DH. He caught 102 games for the Twins (poorly) but that doesn't pull down his DEF or dWAR number as much as his games at DH.

I would throw this article in the bin and try again.

 

[tony&rodney]

Does anyone else question how the stats for defense are gathered? Do errors count? The idea that there is a way to judge balls in play fairly across so many venues seems ludicrous to me.

When I attend a game in person I can note/chart where a defender is playing, note/chart the speed of the ball in play, and note/chart the play of a defender. No matter how this is done, there will still be a fair amount of subjectivity in any judgment. 

If AI could be applied universally there might be a more objective record but no video exists that is identical between ballparks. 

The system used for Gold Gloves in the  past favored offense to a certain degree, but most of the obvious defensive stars were still GG winners (Ozzie Smith, Mark Belanger). Currently some stats are used (25%) but it is still the votes of managers and coaches (75%) that decide who earns a GG.

I'm not sure there will ever be a system capable of measuring the gray areas of fielding. I watch games without the sound on most occasions. When I have the sound on it is common to hear the announcers praise the work of all of our Twins defenders. Buxton is routinely referred to as the Platinum Glove premier centerfielder in baseball. Byron is a good outfielder (at least average) and did win a Platinum Glove in the past. He isn't the best at his position at this time. 

Most teams can live with one or two average to below average defenders and still keep harmony with their pitching staffs. The past players on the list are the equal or better than a number of currently rostered Twins players. How many poor gloves can be used in any one lineup seems important. I'm waiting for the Twins to find a way to replicate the Orioles and A's of the late 1960s and into the 1970s.

 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

It would seem that the stats cited are basically compiled stats -- making long tenured players look worse than they actually were. Some sort of divisor is needed so that these can be rate stat oriented.  Otherwise we are just criticizing unfairly some of the longer tenured Twins. 

[Parfigliano]

3 hours ago, Road trip said:

This is a good list, and yes, many of the names on it are not a surprise.  The Twins have a long history of tolerating mediocre or worse gloves in players that could hit.

The top 10 list does seem to penalize longevity though, as DEF is cumulative.  Perhaps a "DEF/Games played" would be a better measure?   I suspect by doing this the order would look quite a bit different, with really bad defenders with relatively short Twins careers such as Delmon Young and Josh Willingham leaping over long time players like Cuddyer and Jones.

 

Now they tolerate mediocre or worse gloves in players that can't hit.

[jmlease1]

Cuddyer gets punished a little because defensive stats struggle to effectively show the true value of a strong and accurate arm in the OF. And he certainly played positions over the years that the team knowingly accepted that his defense wouldn't be good, just because they needed someone to give it a go and Cuddy was willing and at least had a chance to be passable. I'd rank him lower on this list than someone like Delmon Young, who consistently sucked, never added any value defensively, and also never improved anywhere. I suspect if Cuddy had landed in RF at 25 he might have ended up with better numbers overall.

Kubel is another guy who wasn't a butcher out there, but after that awful knee injury was slow and limited. He played more games at DH than any other position because he simply couldn't play the field very well any longer. It's sorta like saying Tony Oliva was a crappy OF from '72 on, you know? The only reason Kubel was still in the OF in 2010 and 2011 was the Twins had added Thome to DH.

When I think of the truly bad defenders in Twins history I think of guys like Willingham (who could only cover about 20 ft) or Delmon who took some of the worst routes I've ever seen. Appropriate to see them here. Sano is reasonable as well: he had the arm for 3B but not the mobility, and that arm didn't mean much at 1B (and nothing at DH). I have trouble blaming him for sucking in RF; that was always a stupid idea and set him up for failure.

 

[Trov]

This article, and the comments really just highlight how hard it is to quantify bad defense.  For years, fans looked at errors as a metric, but we know that is not a good way to measure defense anymore. Fans also used the eye test of great "looking" plays but the eye test on great looking plays could fail, as with some OF they take a bad route and make a diving catching did they make a great play? NO, but they made it look pretty.  A good defender may have made the play outright. 

Gold gloves was a terrible way too as top offense guys managed to win gold gloves, like Raffy Palmero winning a gold glove at 1st when he DHed most of the year. The voters, that being managers never cared and would vote for names they knew.  Pitchers would win it over and over because they were known. 

One commentor mentioned Jeter, who I agree was one of the most overrated defenders at SS in his time.  He was a decent defender early in career, and then he rode that out for long time and would keep winning gold golves because his offense. He even won a "catch" of the year when he caught a foul ball, then instead of sliding to stop, he decided he would jump into the stands, after he caught the ball.  He makes that catch anywhere else on field he gets a good running catch. However, the lore of Jeter was he dove into the stands to make the catch, like he did a head first dive and caught the ball in the air.  Maybe the way he ran for it he really could not have stopped before hitting the wall, but the lore was he dove into stands to make the catch, it would have been a fair ball if he does not catch it. 

The point is, we will never have a perfect way to judge defenders.  And if you can hit teams will put up with your terrible defense anyways. 

[jorgenswest]

To amplify @DJL44

In 2005 Morneau led all first baseman with a positive 3.5 DEF. It was his rookie season. In 2004 and 2006 no first baseman had a positive DEF. No one hands a positive DEF at 1B this year. Positives at 1B are rare. Morneau was again near the best 1B in baseball in 2009 with a -5.7. Derek Lee was at the top with -4.3. Morneau was never near the bottom of the league.

In addition just adding in my head Morneau had 106 points deducted due to positional adjustment as a Twins. By DEF we might want to add Nelson Cruz who was -26.6 in just 258 games as a Twin.

[DJL44]

9 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

To amplify @DJL44

In 2005 Morneau led all first baseman with a positive 3.5 DEF. It was his rookie season. In 2004 and 2006 no first baseman had a positive DEF. No one hands a positive DEF at 1B this year. Positives at 1B are rare. Morneau was again near the best 1B in baseball in 2009 with a -5.7. Derek Lee was at the top with -4.3. Morneau was never near the bottom of the league.

Right. Morneau's career numbers are 19 for DRS, 23.5 for UZR, 21 for RField. That's an above-average fielding 1B. He's on this list because he played 1B for 13 seasons and also had 190 games at DH. A full-time DH will end up with a DEF around -15 for a whole season. 

[RpR]

1 hour ago, jorgenswest said:

To amplify @DJL44

In 2005 Morneau led all first baseman with a positive 3.5 DEF. It was his rookie season. In 2004 and 2006 no first baseman had a positive DEF. No one hands a positive DEF at 1B this year. Positives at 1B are rare. Morneau was again near the best 1B in baseball in 2009 with a -5.7. Deeerek Lee was at the top with -4.3. Morneau was never near the bottom of the league.

In addition just adding in my head Morneau had 106 points deducted due to positional adjustment as a Twins. By DEF we might want to add Nelson Cruz who was -26.6 in just 258 games as a Twin.

Morneau was an Excellent First Baseman in 2010 and 2014 in his career, he was never a Bad First Baseman.

[The Great Hambino]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Neither DEF nor dWAR directly measures defense, Both DEF and dWAR include the positional replacement value. which means they will always favor a bad fielding SS over a good fielding 1B. What you're mainly measuring in your article is which position people played.

If you want actual defensive metrics, for Fangraphs you want OAA, FRV, DRS or UZR and for BBREF you want RField.

For example - Ryan Doumit was a legitimately terrible fielder, but he's been rated here partly by the 97 games he played as a DH. He caught 102 games for the Twins (poorly) but that doesn't pull down his DEF or dWAR number as much as his games at DH.

I would throw this article in the bin and try again.

 

For poos and giggles, here's the list based on RField from Baseball Reference, along with the number of games with the Twins

10. Trevor Plouffe -27; 723 games

9. Eduardo Escobar -33; 671 (an example of what I mentioned before of versatility getting penalized)

8. Oswaldo Arcia -33; 251

7. Brendan Harris -34; 296

6. Delmon Young -36; 497

5. Jason Kubel -40; 798

4. Miguel Sano -42; 694

3. Jorge Polanco -42; 832

2. Luis Rivas -51; 565

1. Michael Cuddyer -71; 1,139

I suppose I should've taken out the games they didn't play in the field, but I didn't feel like doing that

 

[DJL44]

23 minutes ago, The Great Hambino said:

For poos and giggles, here's the list based on RField from Baseball Reference, along with the number of games with the Twins

10. Trevor Plouffe -27; 723 games

9. Eduardo Escobar -33; 671 (an example of what I mentioned before of versatility getting penalized)

8. Oswaldo Arcia -33; 251

7. Brendan Harris -34; 296

6. Delmon Young -36; 497

5. Jason Kubel -40; 798

4. Miguel Sano -42; 694

3. Jorge Polanco -42; 832

2. Luis Rivas -51; 565

1. Michael Cuddyer -71; 1,139

I suppose I should've taken out the games they didn't play in the field, but I didn't feel like doing that

 

Rivas, Polanco and Harris. That's a lot of bad defense at 2B.

[Jeff K]

15 hours ago, The Great Hambino said:

For poos and giggles, here's the list based on RField from Baseball Reference, along with the number of games with the Twins

10. Trevor Plouffe -27; 723 games

9. Eduardo Escobar -33; 671 (an example of what I mentioned before of versatility getting penalized)

8. Oswaldo Arcia -33; 251

7. Brendan Harris -34; 296

6. Delmon Young -36; 497

5. Jason Kubel -40; 798

4. Miguel Sano -42; 694

3. Jorge Polanco -42; 832

2. Luis Rivas -51; 565

1. Michael Cuddyer -71; 1,139

I suppose I should've taken out the games they didn't play in the field, but I didn't feel like doing that

 

I always thought of Plouffe as the "statue" of liberty at 3rd.  Little to no mobility.

[Teflon]

Delmon Young was the most infuriatingly bad/nonchalant outfielder I ever saw play. He really needed to be a full-time DH but the Twins had Jason Kubel and Jim Thome who tied up the position.