Sports Info Solutions announced the winners of the 2025 Fielding Bible Awards today, the 20th year the awards have been given out. The awards are voted on by a panel of experts who consider statistical analysis, the eye test, and any other factors that they wish to utilize.
This year’s winners are:
- Catcher: Patrick Bailey, Giants
- First base: Matt Olson, Braves
- Second base: Nico Hoerner, Cubs
- Third base: Ke’Bryan Hayes, Reds
- Shortstop: Mookie Betts, Dodgers
- Left field: Steven Kwan, Guardians
- Center field: Ceddanne Rafaela, Red Sox
- Right field: Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres
- Pitcher: Max Fried, Yankees
- Multi-position: Ernie Clement, Blue Jays
- Player of the year: Patrick Bailey, Giants
- Team of the Year: Cubs
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Steven Kwan due for a 4th consecutive GG in 4 years in the bigs? Dude is one of the more unheralded players out there for sure. Not to mention one of my favorite stats for hitters in their careers is how many walks compared to strikeouts they have. Kwan is 240 walks to 246 K’s.
Kwan has been consistently the most dangerous clutch hitter the Tigers have faced since he entered The Show. Nothing but respect for the man many Detroit fans consider Public Enemy #1…
He’s hit .257/.320/.381 against the Tigers for his career. I’m sure the Tigers have plenty worse to worry about!
Kwan is more scary than JRam in clutch situations??
He’s been a below average hitter in two of his four seasons. He’s a good player but mostly a really good glove.
lol
Still waiting for that shortstop experiment to crash and burn….
Patience, young grasshopper. You’ll be right one of these days… or years.
I don’t see this stopped clock ever being right. Mookie just keeps on getting better at his position.
Mookie is a fun player but c’mon… Bobby Witt is probably winning the Platinum Glove this year. Meanwhile… Maikel Garcia is definitely one of the 3 best 3B in MLB. Hayes is getting by on reputation.
The Fielding Bible has Hayes with 19 total runs saved, tied for 4th among all MLB players, behind only Ernie Clement, Steven Kwan, Ceddanne Rafaela, and tied with Patrick Bailey.
Baseball Savant has him with 21 OAA.
His bat may be a joke, but his glove is as serious as it gets.
Also, Baseball Savant loves Bobby Witt Jr., giving him 24 OAA. But the Fielding Bible doesn’t agree, putting him outside the top 125 best defenders with only 3 total runs saved. His ability to get a platinum glove, or even a gold glove will depend on what is valued more.
According to Fielding Bible, Garcia posted 13 Defensive Runs Saved to 19 for Hayes. Other defensive stats come to different conclusions, but this is the problem with defensive stats. Not everything in baseball can be easily quantified, and defense is one of them. This is why they take other methods into consideration — including the good old eye test.
There is also the old-reliable approach of going with multiple metrics/approaches at once, in order to help mute any shortcomings of any one approach. I suspect that is how most approach these awards.
If not for his injury this year Matt Chapman is not only the better defender than Hayes but can also hit.
If not for his natural aging, retirement and death at 86 years of age, Brooks Robinson was not only a better than Chapman but also the better hitter.
Oh yeah?!? Mike Schmidt blew them all away…in the batter’s box. Oh, I forgot this was not an article on Silver Slugger awards. /s
Brooks Robinson was an incredible player, but not really a better hitter than Chapman. Chapman’s career so far is his age 24 through 32 seasons. Compare his stats to Robinson’s same age seasons:
Robinson – .276/.329/.434, OPS .763, OPS+ 115
Chapman – .240/.330/.458, OPS .788, OPS+ 119
And right now Chapman has only 65 fewer HRs than Robinson had in his career. But as hitters they’re actually fairly equal, with Robinson better at contact, and Chapman with better power.
Schwarber got screwed.
If only Hayes could hit
If wishes and butts were candy and nuts. But if Varsho is healthy all year Jays probably top 5 defensive teams in history
The thing is though, Myles Straw replaced most if not all of the defensive value that was missing while Varsho was out. The team overall didn’t really suffer on defense, although the offense would have benefited from having Varsho over Straw at the plate.
So without him they’re not even the best in the league this season?
You can’t have Bichette’s glove at short and be considered the best defensive team. Center of the diamond positions are so important defensively.
Or Bichette’s face. You don’t want to look at a cabbage patch doll’s head on a human body during games. I’m eating here!
There’s a reason why Toronto is still winning games with Bichette out. They should let him walk in the offseason and play a much cheaper glove.
Better ways to use the money it’ll take to bring him back. Let a bad team overpay.
I’m so ready for framing to be a meaningless metric…
That’s one vote for full-time ABS because framing will have value until then.
Yep, I can’t wait. Give me that consistent strike zone and no more arguing over it. Just toss em and be done with it.
I’m as ready as you for ABS but framing will still be important.
If there’s a fully ABS, framing is irrelevant.
With a challenge system, framing is still important.
Like framing is the only thing that makes a defensive catcher valuable. What about blocking balls in the dirt, pop time, and throwing out baserunners? All that will always be part of the game no matter what technology MLB adopts.
That’s without delving into their role in the calling of pitches and working well with the pitching staff. There’s a lot more that a catcher does than just framing.
He didn’t say anything about other skills, or imply they weren’t relevant. Why are you trying to make an argument out of nothing?
Apparently subtlety is lost on you. The implication was fairly clear, suggesting Bailey was the top catcher, and the top overall defender, merely because he’s the best at framing in MLB. I brought up the other skills because they are all factors in Bailey’s recognition as the best catcher, and overall defender.
Patrick Bailey is second in Catcher Framing Runs all time (baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/catcher-framing…). He did not debut until 2023 and the stat was tracked starting in 2018.
Bailey is a fantastic defensive catcher and he has to have more skills other than framing because if he can’t keep runners honest, block balls in the dirt, etc people will take extra bases all the time.
In fact, when catchers don’t need to practice framing, they can focus on all those other aspects.
Another indication of Ernie Clement’s value to the Jays!
Mookie? LOL
Guess you weren’t paying close attention to him this season?
Are these awards only based on fielding or is hitting involved too.Because if you are a good hitter,it makes you a better fielder.
Believe it or not, the Fielding Bible awards are for … fielding.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Gold Glove awards are also for fielding yet it looks like many people don’t ignore offense when voting.
For example: Jeter in general.
And in 1999 Rafael Palmero won the GG at 1B in the AL. He played 28 games at 1B that season. 128 at DH.
Yes, but the thread was asking about the FB awards specifically. And they are indeed about just fielding; you can see that based on some of the no-hit selections who are included.
The GGs were notorious for focusing on stars, too much inertia (once one became a Gold Glover (TM) it was easier to get more GGs), and generally weak approaches by many voters. You cite well two of the best examples of their poor results!
PCA is a better center fielder, and probably one of the top 3 defensive players in baseball by the eye test. But he had some really goofy boneheaded plays that likely cost him analytically.
Who voted on this,Hollywood ? Betts may be 3rd at best maybe 4th. Masyn Winn and/or Bobby Witt much better fielders than Betts at short. Probably the kid in Atlanta too. Come on this is a joke!
So proud of Bailey as Player of the Year and best for Catching position, also!!! 🏆 ⚾️
Stupid picks base on nothing
If you say so, lol
I guess they weren’t at the game I was at when Bailey dropped a pop up a few feet from home plate. Maybe they also missed the game where he dropped a perfect throw home to allow the Dodgers to win and end our season. Many many other plays that made me wonder if Bailey was hung over or mentally challenged but I guess he was pretty good at framing pitches and occasionally throwing out runners.
Isn’t it just awful when one of your whipping boys goes well. Creates such an internet dilemna !
Never mind. You can always death ride him again next year.
No PCA?
Puzzled: no one stood out at DH?
And why not a SP and a RP.
Patrick Bailey hits worse than a womans softball player. Unfortunately, Buster Posey loves him.
My gal is a pretty good D One softball hitter. She could straighten out that dent you got in your cranium for you!
Wait, is it a cranium dent that is causing several on here to denatung various guys’ hitting prowess on a comment board for an article about D-🤺 🤺
Debating not denatung or denaturing that auto-correct framed me for.
Not much went right, but Matt Olson having generational defense was fun. I do not care if it’s first base. I need this.
1B is an underrated defensive position. A bad defensive 1B can really hurt his team. The Mets went from the top rated defensive team in 2001 to the worst in 2002. Most of the roster was unchanged except they signed Mo Vaughn to play 1B.
It’s kind of a logarithmic curve. The difference in value between an average defensive 1B and a bad one is substantial, but the difference between an elite one and an average one is minimal.
Not sure if it’s underrated, but it might be under-appreciated. This position is involved with more assists than any other.
Why do they have this and gold gloves? What’s the difference?
Apparently Gold Glove is voted on by MLB managers and coaches, while the fielding bible is voted on by “10-15 sabermetrically inclined experts, including journalists, authors, and analysts, who use a combination of statistical analysis, visual observation, and subjective judgment to select one overall winner for each defensive position across all of Major League Baseball (MLB)”
Journalists? Their vote here is almost as irrelevant as having them vote for the HOF
The Fielding Bible Awards were created and rose to some prominence at a time when the Gold Gloves were still chosen by a very flawed analysis. It was pretty apparent how superior the FB awards were to the GGs, for many years.
Rafaela ended the season as a 2B and Betts was 9th in FRV and OAA. Only two I have an issue with.
Holy misinformation Batman!
Rafaela played the 6th-most innings at CF in all of baseball (so no issue with volume there), and was the best fielder there by metrics consensus and plenty of eye test approval. So he should get robbed of being acknowledged as the best fielder at his position this year because he helped his team out by spotting them 165 solid-fielding innings at 2B?
By the way, the LAST game he played at 2B this year, including playoffs, was September 2nd. “Ended the season as a 2B”, cool straight-up lie there buddy.
For the complainers (and those who are just interested), here’s an opportunity to read the reasoning behind these choices, and who voted.
sportsinfosolutions.com/2025/10/23/the-2025-fieldi…
Matt Olson is a great baseball player and even better human. He does a lot for charity.
Clement is great and all but not giving the utility award to Mauricio Dubon is insane.
Clement is better based on virtually every defensive metric though? Seems perfectly sane to me.
Looking at different metrics apparently cause Savant has Dubon ahead of Clement by a lot.
Mookie Betts over Nick Adams?
I thought this was a fielding award?
Since there’s no Nick Adams, I assume you mean Nick Allen.
Defensive Runs Saved:
Betts: 17 (1st)
Allen: 12 (3rd)
So yeah, it’s a fielding award.
Baseball Savant has Nick Allen at 17 OAA
Baseball Savant has Mookie Betts at 6 OAA
Baseball reference has Nick Allen at 12 DRS and per 1200 innings 14
Baseball reference has Betts at 17 DRS and per 1200 innings 16
Betts had approximately 230 more innings than Allen at the position.
Pete Crow Armstrong shouLd have won for CF. And I don’t know why Betts won at short. Love him and its quite impressive moving there from right field. But the best in both leaguea? I can think of several who were better – Swanson & Witt for starters.
Both Winns were better picks than Betts.
Funny they gave the Cubs as the best defensive team in baseball. Apparently they didn’t watch Dansby kick the ball around the infield in the division series. Hoerner straight up let a ball between his legs and PCA badly misplayed a ball in game 5.
Mookie Betts…it just lost any credibility.
I believe for all these awards voting was completed before the playoffs began and all awards are reg season only