Trivia: Defense wins championships
 

Who is the leader in career dWAR among active players?

Is Andrelton Simmons still active? If not I'll guess Mookie Betts

Good guesses, but neither is correct. Simmons is no longer active, and Mookie Betts is about 40% shy of the leader.

Nolan Arenado

While it's probably Arenado, I'll guess Dansby Swanson.



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Nolan Arenado is correct, with 20.1 dWAR!

(Kevin Kiermaier just retired after the 2024 season, with 21.2)

Looks like the career dWAR of guys like Ozzie (44.2), Mark Belanger (39.5) and Brooks Robinson (39.1) will remain way out of reach for the current generation of players.

Watching Arenado play defense on a daily basis is a treat. I had no idea how good he was before the Cardinals picked him up in 2021.

Word is that the Cardinals are trying to trade him and the Yankees are interested...

With the lower number of batted balls in play nowadays, I don’t think anybody will approach those guys unless the strategy of baseball changes immensely in the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHoDCMC6N-A

I thought this was kind of interesting -- Nolan and Ozzie fielding ground balls while talking about fielding ground balls for 11 minutes.