Juan Soto’s Defense is Not Gold Glove Worthy

Since Juan Soto made his MLB debut just the age of 19 during the 2018 season, the league has been blessed with one their most marketable superstars.

Soto is nothing short of a spectacular hitter. In 4088 plate appearances over his seven-year career, he sports an average of .285 and an OPS of .953.

He also possesses one of the best approaches in all of baseball. He’s managed to maintain a career walk rate (18.8%) nearly two percent higher than his career strikeout mark (17.0%). And Soto has not posted a individual season walk rate that was lower than his respective K-rate in that same season since his second year in the league in 2019.

And from a counting-stats standpoint, Soto has hit 201 home runs, 592 RBIs while scoring 655 runs in the span of his career up to this point.

While there’s no doubting the fact that Soto is a world-class bat, if there’s one thing he’s not world-class in, it’s defense.

But according to Rawlings and their Gold Glove nominations, you would believe that he’s nothing extraordinary in the outfield.

On Tuesday, Soto was announced as a Gold Glove finalist for the second time in three years, and it’s baffling to think why this is.

All stats, figures and leaderboard mentions include players with at least 500 innings played at their respective positions.

2022 NL Gold Glove Finalist in RF

If we look back at his nomination in 2022, it was puzzling one to say that Soto was being recognized for his defense

During the 2022 campaign, Soto was an utter disappointment in the field. He ranked 242nd, among the 243 Major League defenders, in FanGraphs’ defensive metric (DEF) at -20.8.

This put him ahead of only Kyle Schwarber, who is now well known for being shielded as a DH for the Phillies due to his poor defense.

And among the NL right fielders, in which he was in competition against and ultimately nominated for the Gold Glove award at the position, Soto was once again at or near the bottom across the board.

We’ve already established how poorly he ranked in DEF that season, as he sat dead last among the 14 highest played right fielders.

But Soto also ranked last in outs above average (OAA) at -13 and 10th out of 14 in defensive runs saved (DRS) at -2 and ultimate zone rating (UZR) at -2.0.

For context here are the names and season statistics of the his two fellow finalists:

And despite the right field position being poor overall in the National League that year, there was clearly a better option than Soto across the board: Cincinnati’s Aristides Aquino.

And it’s not as if he made up for poor advanced metrics through having a strong arm that year. Soto’s arm ranked horrendously across the league, sitting in the first percentile in arm value according to Baseball Savant. T

his saw him in a five-way tie for last place among the same group of 14 NL right fielders in outfield assists.

2024 AL Gold Glove Finalist in RF

The MLB community had a year to breathe after the bizarre selection of Soto as a Gold Glove finalist in 2022. But that breath would only be a short one as two year’s later we’re right back in the same place we were just two seasons before.

While he’s not second-to-last in DEF like he was in 2022, Soto was certainly much closer to the bottom of the leaderboard rather than he was to the top. He found himself 204th out of 246 players, with the most innings registered at a single position, with a DEF of -6.0.

And he once again posted negatives across the boards in other key advanced defensive metrics.

Among the 14 highest played AL right fielders this season, Soto’s -6.0 DEF ranked ninth. He also sat near the bottom of the board in OAA, as his -5 total put him in tie of 11th. And in terms of UZR, Soto ranked dead last amongst AL right fielders at -6.0.

He did improve upon his DRS total this time around but still only landed in the middle pack as he sat in a three-way tie for sixth in DRS at -1.

What may’ve been Soto’s defensive saving grace in 2024 was his arm. He sat in the 90th percentile in Arm Value this year, resulting in a three way tie alongside Kansas City’s Hunter Renfroe and Boston’s Wilyer Abreu for first in outfield assists, among the highest played AL right fielders, with nine.

But at the end of the day, nine outfield assists shouldn’t void the fact that Soto once again showed his inability to play a good outfield, let alone a gold standard one.

Now I’m not saying the field of AL right fielders blew anyone away in 2024 other than Wilyer Abreu, who along with outfield assists also lead AL right fielders in DRS (18), OAA (7), UZR (6.9) and DEF (6.3), but there were certainly better options to slot in alongside Abreu and Los Angeles’ Jo Adell other than Soto and his strong arm.

Three names that come to mind are Detroit’s Wenceel Perez, Minnesota’s Max Kepler and despite his lengthy stint on the IL, Houston’s Kyle Tucker and the nearly 600 innings he still logged out in right in 2024.

All of these options were statistically better across the board from an advanced metrics standpoint.

It’s Time to Appreciate Soto for What He is and Not What He’s Not

Soto is a well-rounded, generational talent offensively. There are very few hitters that can strike fear into opposing pitchers quite like he can.

But at the end of the day, it’s time that we call things for what they are and unanimously establish that he just isn’t the gold standard defender that his two gold glove nominations says he his.

For his career he’s patrolled the outfield on 906 different occasions. In that time frame, he’s posted a career -15 DRS, -23 OAA and a -13.8 UZR.

While his 33 outfield assists from 2018 to 2024 rank him just outside the top 10, at 13th, amongst names like Mookie Betts and Ronald Acuña Jr., just an arm doesn’t make a defender.

Throwing out runners is not a bad skill to have by any means, but when that’s paired with negative totals across the board in everything else, it doesn’t indicate a good defender, but simply a good arm.

When all is said and done, Soto is going to get his fair share of recognition across the board, through MVPs and Silver Sluggers. His trophy cabinet, or legacy for that matter, doesn’t need the boost from extra awards that he hasn’t come remotely close to deserving.

Instead it’s time to start recognizing and building up the names that don’t have the luxury of being Juan Soto, but can impact their team’s chances as well as the overall game as whole, with their defense to much higher degree than Soto can.