As some free agent outfielders have started come off the board, such as Corey Dickerson and Avisail Garcia, there are still several players that can be highly productive for all thirty clubs. For the purposes of this article, we focus on the best remaining free agents from the standpoint of defense. With the offensive surge and run scoring in baseball, this has become needed skill. For evaluating outfielder defense, we use Range Factor per Game (RF/G), Range Factor per Nine Innings (RF/9), Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), and Outfield Arm Runs (ARM) which is a component of UZR.
Of the eligible remaining free agent outfielders in Table One, Leonys Martin ranks 1st in RF/G (2.32) meaning that he makes about 2.32 defensive plays per game, and is tied for 3rd in RF/9 (2.40), meaning that he makes about 2.40 defensive plays per nine innings, a standard baseball game. However, there is another FA outfielder that is better amongst the more advanced defensive metrics.
DRS tells you how many runs better or worse that player has been relative to the average player at his position. Jarrod Dyson is 1st with 13 DRS, meaning that he is 13 runs above average defensively. Regarding UZR, it quantifies how many runs a player saved or gave up through fielding. Dyson is tied for 1st amongst the remaining pool of FA outfielders with a UZR of 7.9. One of the main components of the previously discussed metric is ARM, which measures how many runs an outfielder saves with their arm. Dyson again ranks first in this category with 5.7.
Overall, Jarrod Dyson has the edge in three of the five categories discussed and is our choice for the best remaining defensive free agent outfielder. Here is our Top 5:
1. Jarrod Dyson
2. Billy Hamilton
3. Marcell Ozuna
4. Carlos Gonzalez
5. Alex Gordon
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