Good article, and I agree with the premise that infield defense is less important than it used to be. However, I also believe that defense is deeply undervalued by the statistics we have available. Like elite talent, defense has a way of showing up in the postseason. Perhaps that is just confirmation bias (winning team also got lucky enough to have opportunities to make good plays, but weren't any more likely to do so), or perhaps talent and defensive skill are by definition anti-stochastic, i.e. difference makers. One minor bit: if the Twins infield UZR was -20, and their OAA was -15, doesn't that imply that they employed the shift to a 5-out advantage? You implied the opposite. Or did you quote the numbers backwards?