Photo: John Cordes/Icon Sportswire

On Thursday, we’ll announce the winners of The 2025 Fielding Bible Awards for defensive excellence. This will be the 20th annual announcement recognizing the best defensive players in baseball at each position, as well as the best team.

I thought it would be interesting to talk to two players who won Fielding Bible Awards for whom the Award might mean a little bit more: Brendan Ryan, who won as a shortstop for the Mariners in 2012, and Jeff Mathis, who won as a catcher for the Diamondbacks in 2018. Each won a Fielding Bible Award but did not win the more well-known Gold Glove Award.

Brendan Ryan took his defensive positioning as a shortstop very seriously. He played at a time when defensive shifting was just starting to become a major part of the game and players still had the ability to move well off of where teams positioned them. By 2012 the Mariners were giving him the ability to move not just himself but also the third baseman and second baseman to where he felt they needed to be.

“Let’s say Ian Kinsler was coming up,” said Ryan in a recent conversation from his home in Los Angeles. “I know he’s not hitting the ball up the middle, so that’s going to be a backhand opportunity for me. But I don’t want to be in the backhand lane. I want to be straight up and moving into the backhand so that I could get a head start. The bounces would work in my favor. I felt in complete control that way.”

It’s this approach and Ryan’s own positioning (“I just tried to play as far back as I could”) that made him so adept in the field, which culminated in 2012 with an MLB-best 27 Defensive Runs Saved and a Fielding Bible Award.

As Sports Info Solutions wrote in its Awards announcement at the time: “Brendan Ryan is the best defender in baseball. Period. Make that double period.”

From 2009 to 2012, Ryan is credited with 93 Runs Saved. The next-most by a shortstop is 46. Ryan lapped the field!

A lot of credit for that goes to Ryan’s days with the Cardinals, for whom he totaled 22 and 24 Runs Saved in 2009 and 2010, respectively, prior to his trade to the Mariners. Coaches George Kissell, who invented “The Cardinals Way” and Jose Oquendo, the longtime Cardinals infield coach.

“Those two guys were on me,” said Ryan, who entered his pro career as a second baseman. “Kissell with discipline and detail and Oquendo put me in position where he made some things easier, detailed things like where to catch a ball on a double play to make it easier to transition and make an accurate throw. The confidence comes behind that.”

And yet, in the days prior to the existence of the Sabermetric Defensive Index, which now accounts for 25% of the vote, as good as Ryan was, he couldn’t win a Gold Glove. (Let’s be fair, he probably could have won more than one Fielding Bible Award too). His lack of offense (he had a .555 OPS in 2012) may have had something to do with that, as there was a perception that better hitters had a better chance at winning the Award.

“I was so lost at the plate and I couldn’t find my way, but I knew I had value because they kept running me out there and I knew they valued defense,” Ryan said.

Ryan thought for sure that he’d win a Gold Glove in 2012 and even had fleeting thoughts about winning a Platinum Glove. He got beat out by J.J. Hardy, who wasn’t a bad choice, though Ryan had a decisive Runs Saved edge.

Ryan was aware of The Fielding Bible Awards. His brother and his agent both tipped him off that SIS stats viewed him favorably and he was familiar with an article Bill James wrote comparing Derek Jeter and Adam Everett. The trophy he received is prominently placed in his man cave.

“I certainly cherish it,” he said.

The Mariners understood something about how valuable Ryan was and that that award meant something. Ryan’s salary nearly doubled from 2012 to 2013, his fifth season of service time. He played professionally for five more seasons. Now happy in retirement, he and his family live almost next door to where he grew up.

“I still love talking defense,” he said. “I love how far this [statistical analysis] has gone and that they’re really getting an accurate assessment of who guys are and what they do outside of the batter’s box. It’s awesome.”