Photo: Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire

The Hall of Fame ballot came out a few weeks ago and so we’re in for lots of debates and discussions and everything that comes with one of the most polarizing topics in sports.

This is not a strong ballot when it comes to first-time candidates, with Cole Hamels the best of them and he’s not likely to be elected this year.

We like to focus on defense here so I want to address someone more likely to get 5 votes from the BBWAA than the 5% needed to stay on the ballot, let alone the 75% needed for induction, and that’s former Kansas City Royals left fielder Alex Gordon.

Gordon hit .257 with a .748 OPS in a career that spanned 14 seasons, one that began when he was drafted No. 2 overall in 2005 and heralded as one of the game’s top prospects when recalled in 2007.

Gordon peaked from 2011 to 2014, when he averaged just under 6 bWAR and 156 games played per season. His most memorable moment is a ninth-inning game-tying home run in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series, one the Royals went on to win. He dipped a bit as a hitter in his last five seasons, which cost him 35 points off his career OPS.

But it’s Gordon the fielder that we want to talk about. He’s the left field overall leader in Defensive Runs Saved dating back to when the stat was first tracked in 2003. He also won 4 Fielding Bible Awards, the most of any left fielder (Steven Kwan has 3 and could catch him next year).

Most Defensive Runs Saved – Left Field – Since Runs Saved First Tracked In 2003

How did Gordon record that many Runs Saved?

We have three areas in which players can receive Runs Saved: Range, Outfield Arm, and Good Plays & Defensive Misplays and Errors.

Gordon finished his career with 40 Range Runs Saved. That’s a decent total. It ranks fifth overall but is well behind the leader, Brett Gardner’s 79. Where Gordon stood out at his position was in both the Outfield Arm and Good Plays & Misplays, as those account for 77 of his Runs Saved.

Gordon totaled 51 Outfield Arm Runs Saved and also recorded 26 Runs Saved from his balance of Good Plays and Misplays.” Each of those rank No. 1 overall among left fielders.

Outfield Arm is largely self-explanatory. You get rewarded when baserunners don’t take an extra base on hits, get a spike if you throw someone out, and get penalized if someone goes first to third or second to home. Gordon was known for his arm and earned a lot of value here. (Here’s a refresher in case you forgot)

Good Plays and Misplays

I want to spend more time on Good Plays and Misplays. For the last 20-plus years, we’ve been tracking not just highlight-reel catches but also little things like if a fielder cuts a ball off in the gap and prevents a baserunner from advancing.

Most Good Play/Misplay Runs Saved – Left Fielders

We’ve also tracked times that a fielder does or doesn’t do something that allows a batter to advance an extra base (the fielder gets credit for “holds to double” or “holds to single”). They’re admittedly a judgement call but the judgement is based on careful consideration by our trained group of Data Scouts.

Gordon had 46 “holds to single” in his career. You can see some examples here, here, and here. An average left fielder who played as much as Gordon did would have been expected to have 31 of them, 15 fewer than Gordon had. The differential translates to about 4.5 Runs Saved.

Most “Holds To Single” By Left Fielder (2007-2020)

One of those Defensive Misplay and Error categories is “Mishandling Ball After Safe Hit,” which is something that is sometimes obvious and scored an error and sometimes not scored one. We count both the obvious and not-so-obvious plays.

In his career, Gordon had 17 instances of “Mishandling Ball After Safe Hit.” An average defender that played as often as Gordon did would have been expected to have 40 such Misplays and Errors.

The 23-play difference is worth roughly 9.5 Runs Saved, a nice reward for being a careful fielder.

We’re not here to say that you should be voting for Gordon for the Hall of Fame based on the numbers we’ve shared. He’s not a strong candidate when you consider the totality of what he was as a player. But it is fair to say that he’s one of baseball’s best defensive players of the last 25 years and we enjoy being able to acknowledge him as such.