Sports Info Solutions posted its updated Defensive Runs Saved leaders by position this week, and the margins at several spots are lopsided enough to make a stathead double-check the column headers.
Cody Bellinger sits atop the entire board with 19 DRS in left field, the highest single-position total on the list. Matt Chapman has built a seven-run cushion at third base, where his 16 DRS dwarf Max Muncy’s 9. Taylor Walls owns a six-run lead at shortstop — 14 to the 8 posted by Bobby Witt Jr., Geraldo Perdomo, and José Caballero, who are tied for second.
The post came from Mark at Sports Info Solutions, the company that created the Defensive Runs Saved metric and administers the Fielding Bible Awards. DRS compares each defender to an average player at the same position and estimates how many runs his glove has saved or cost over the course of a season. The full leaderboards are maintained at FieldingBible.com.
Not every position is a blowout. Brice Turang leads second basemen with 14 DRS, but JJ Weatherholt is right behind him at 13 — a one-run gap that could flip in a weekend series. Ty France paces first basemen at 11, three ahead of T.J. Rumfield’s 8.
The continuity at third base and shortstop tracks with what SIS observed earlier this season. Chapman, a three-time Fielding Bible Award winner, was already leading the hot corner in May. Walls, despite ranking 24th among shortstops in innings played since the start of 2024, has accumulated more DRS at the position than anyone in that span — a rate stat disguised as a counting stat, and the kind of efficiency that makes you wonder why he isn’t getting more reps.
Bellinger’s emergence in left field is the freshest name on the board. Steven Kwan, a two-time Fielding Bible Award winner, held the spot in SIS’s May update. Bellinger’s 19 DRS represent not just a position lead but the largest total at any spot on the infield or outfield leaderboard that SIS published. For a player whose offensive profile has fluctuated wildly across 10 major-league seasons — from a 2019 MVP-adjacent campaign to a two-year trough in 2021–22 — the defensive numbers add a layer of value that slash lines don’t capture.
The signal noted “a lot of runaways this year,” and the data bears that out at three positions. Chapman’s margin at third is the widest in the infield. Walls is lapping the field at short despite limited playing time. And Bellinger’s 19 in left, pending the full outfield and battery positions, stands as the number to beat.
SIS cautions on its own site that early-season DRS figures have not reached predictive reliability, a caveat that loosens as the sample grows. Wherever these numbers sit on the stability curve, they identify the same defensive hierarchy that front offices and coaching staffs are building around — and the same gloves that are quietly stealing runs before the box score can account for them.
Sources:
- Sports Info Solutions — Familiar Names Atop Defensive Runs Saved Leaderboards
- Sports Orca — MLB Defensive Runs Saved Leaders by Position
- Baseball Savant — Cody Bellinger Player Page