Mariners manager Dan Wilson says that Julio Rodríguez wants to be the best player in baseball.
That’s a tough hill to climb given the competition of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. For now Rodríguez will have to settle for being the best defensive player in baseball, at least for a month and maybe more.
Rodríguez heads our list of Defensive Players of the Month for June. The month’s other honorees as top defenders are Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts.
”He’s just made so many of those catches, covered a lot of ground in the outfield, and has really taken charge out there,” Wilson said before a recent game. “You really don’t understand how many runs that saves.”
With all due respect to the Mariners manager, we are able to put a number on it.
Rodríguez led all center fielders with 9 Runs Saved in June and ranks third at the position with 11 Runs Saved this season. The highlight was a home run robbery against Chris Taylor of the Angels, his 2nd home-run-robbing catch this season.
Rodríguez had previously fared well in MLB’s suite of defensive stats but he’s never had a breakout season in Runs Saved until now.
One of the biggest things for him is that he’s reduced the number of mistakes he’s made this season. Rodríguez had 17 Defensive Misplays & Errors in 131 games in 2024 but has only 7 through 83 games this season.
* SIS has 60 categories of Defensive Misplays that it gives to fielders for things such as slipping, dropping a transfer on a double play, or overthrowing a cutoff man.
Ke’Bryan Hayes
Hayes led third basemen with 7 Runs Saved during the month. Hayes, who won the Fielding Bible Award for defensive excellence in 2021 and 2023, seems to be the frontrunner for the honor just past the midway point of the season. His 11 Runs Saved lead the field by a comfortable margin. Ernie Clement and Caleb Durbin are second among third basemen with 6 Runs Saved.
Hayes has saved at least 10 Runs in each of the last 5 seasons. He’s already surpassed his 2024 totals for Runs Saved (10) and Good Fielding Plays (10, 3 more than last year). As has been key for him in the past, one area where Hayes stands out for playmaking is on balls hit to his right (like this one), often along the third base line.
Mookie Betts
Betts tallied 6 Runs Saved in June, one shy of Trevor Story for the most by a shortstop. Just past the season’s midpoint, Betts and Nick Allen of the Braves look like frontrunners for the NL Gold Glove Award. Allen has 9 Runs Saved this season, one more than Betts. Both are chasing Rays shortstop Taylor Walls, who leads all shortstops with 18 Runs Saved.
The biggest thing that Betts has done at shortstop is similar to what Rodríguez has done in center field: cut down on his mistakes. He had 19 Defensive Misplays & Errors in 65 games there last season. He has 9 through 77 games entering July.
The Dodgers coaching staff has also done its part in helping Betts acclimate to a new position (remember, he’s won 5 Fielding Bible Awards in right field). The Dodgers have been credited with 7 Runs Saved for how they’ve positioned Betts, tied for the most for any team in positioning its shortstop. That has allowed Betts to do what he does best (click the link to see what we mean).
