Trevor Plouffe's Glovely Season At Third

Plouffe executed the play like he had came out of the womb making backhanded, cross-diamond throws. The next day Twins general manager Terry Ryan reflected on Plouffe’s defensive performance and simply offered “I don’t know if he would have made that the previous year.”

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Most Twins Daily readers would probably agree with Ryan’s assessment. Data confirms the eye test as the numbers revealed Plouffe had difficulties converting balls in play to his right into outs. Baseball Info Solution said he was -4 plays on average when going to his right. But even that was a relative improvement over his early days at third when he was a gross liability at -13 plays on average going to his right. At that point in his development, it was almost a given that a ball hit where Souza's did would allow him to reach base.

“He’s starting to make plays,” said Ryan. “You know the accuracy is the only thing you worry about with him.”

Plouffe’s abilities in the field have taken a significant step forward since his introduction to the hot corner. While trying to make that progress he felt like he could hear every groan after each misplay.

“I think when I first started over there I was learning a new position right in front of everybody so everyone got to watch me fail which is always awesome,” Plouffe said. “But I worked hard at it. I had some coaches that really helped me out out there. I think the combination of those two things have helped me get a little better each day and I continue to work on it. I’m happy there is improvement.”

Now in his fourth season as the regular third baseman, Ryan credits former manager Ron Gardenhire’s persistence with running Plouffe on the field despite some of the results.

“Gardy had patience with Trevor. Gardy was always a fan of Trevor Plouffe. And kept putting him out there and putting him out there. We rotated him around the diamond some but he kept putting him out there. And ultimately this third base business might be his fit.”

There has been observable (like the Souza play) and quantifiable improvement to his glove game. According to Revised Zone Ratings, Plouffe has converted 79.7% of all balls hit in his third base zone into outs. That is currently a career best and fourth highest among all third basemen this season.

“At shortstop, where I played primarily, you gotta to go get the ball,” Plouffe explained. “At third base, if you are cutting your angles off that way, your range is going to be cut down dramatically. It was learning how to go laterally to the balls and learning the timing and a lot of things that go into it. I know it is fielding the ball and throwing over to first but that’s not how it is. There are a lot of different nuances you have to pick up and that took a little bit of time for me to figure out.”

Another interesting statistic that really does not provide anything other than a sense of how comfortable he has gotten in the field is that he is leading all third basemen in plays from his knees. Of all the third base plays this season, only 12 outs have been made from the knees and Plouffe has recorded 4 of them.

Like this...

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...and this…

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If that feels like an overkill stat, you are right, it is. But it speaks towards his ability to remain calm and not rush throws. Part of that is knowing the competition and part of that is knowing your own limitations.

“He’s got good hands, there’s no reason for him not to do be able to that,” Ryan said of Plouffe’s playmaking abilities. “His hands are plenty good and they always have been. And his arm strength is plenty good to play third and always has been it’s just a matter of accuracy.”

Plouffe is not an otherworldly defender at third. The excitement over his fielding is based on the fact that he has transitioned from a player actively hurting the team to average to slightly above average. But the Twins do not necessarily need a superman at third like Colorado’s Nolan Arenado who covers more infield than the stadium’s tarp. The Twins need a third baseman who can turn a high percentage of balls in his zone into outs. And so far Trevor Plouffe is proving he can do that in 2015.