We already knew it in Minnesota, but it’s nice to see Major League Baseball’s bigwigs confirm it: Byron Buxton is the best fielder in the game.
MLB announced Buxton as the winner of the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award Friday.
It comes a couple days after he won a Gold Glove award as the best center fielder.
Let’s see … how should we measure his fielding greatness?
With numbers?
There are lots of stats to measure defensive ability these days – and Buxton is at the top in a lot of them.
Look it up on Fangraphs: Buxton led American League center fielders in defensive Wins Against Replacement. He led everybody in runs saved with 24. And in the category called outs above average Buxton finished at 25, which is six more than any other outfielder.
With words ?
We like how the other Twin who won a Gold Glove this year – second baseman Brian Dozier – put it to MLB.com:
“He changes the game defensively more than anybody I’ve ever seen. It bugs me that he’s even compared to other guys because until you play with him, you see the balls he gets to nobody else can get to.”
With your own eyes
Seeing is believing.
There’s another Buxton highlight reel here but this is a good 2-and-a-half minute one from Twins Daily:
https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/928088065792446464
Cheers to Byron Buxton and here’s to more great catches – and awards – still to come.
