MLB Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) Leaders by Position 2026 opens with a runner leaning toward third and a left fielder already loading his throw. Steven Kwan takes a hard hop near the line, comes up clean, and fires without a cutoff. The third base coach freezes. The runner stays glued to second like he just saw a stop sign in his own head.
Noise follows late. A glove pop. A spike scraping dirt. Forty thousand people realizing the play ended before they finished inhaling.
Hitters can live with a strikeout. Pitchers can live with a bloop. Nobody lives comfortably with a ball that should fall and does not.
So the 2026 question stays blunt: who kept runs off the board when the ball found the grass everywhere else.
Why DRS keeps winning the argument
Stats can feel cold until you attach them to a feeling. DRS does that by translating defense into the one currency baseball never stops counting.
Sports Info Solutions created Defensive Runs Saved and uses it as the spine of the Fielding Bible Awards. The method compares a defender to an average player at the same position and estimates how many runs his glove saved or allowed over a season.
That matters right now for three reasons.
Range decides whether contact becomes an out or a crisis. Conversion decides whether the out stays clean or turns into an extra base. Impact skills decide whether opponents even try the play in the first place, whether that means a catcher stealing a strike, an outfielder erasing a runner, or a pitcher shutting down the running game.
This part needs to stay clear for casual readers: every DRS figure in this story comes from the 2025 regular season. The “2026” framing comes from what those 2025 results suggest about the defensive hierarchy heading into the next year, the kind of hierarchy front offices actually plan around.
MLB Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) Leaders by Position 2026 is a 2026 outlook built on 2025 actuals, not a prediction dressed up as a recap.
The year run prevention stopped feeling optional
Baseball can drift into routine. Defense snaps it back into tension.
One pitch misses a corner. One swing drives a ball into the gap. One glove closes the distance, and the inning changes shape.
That is the difference between a two run inning and a walk back to the dugout shaking your head. It is also why the 2025 Fielding Bible results landed with bite. These winners did not just look good. They stole probability in repeatable ways.
Versatility showed up, too. Teams used to treat a multi position defender as a luxury. Managers now treat that skill like oxygen, especially across a long season with thin pitching staffs and constant injuries.
MLB Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) Leaders by Position 2026 lives in that reality. You can watch the same game without noticing it. You can also watch with DRS in mind and see the field as a set of traps.
The MLB Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) Leaders by Position 2026 list
The entries below follow the 2025 DRS leader at each defensive lane, then lean forward into what it means for 2026 roster planning and postseason baseball. Each one includes one moment you can picture, one data point you can cite, and one cultural note that explains why the skill sticks.
10. Max Fried, Yankees, pitcher
Most pitchers finish their job at release. Fried starts a second job the instant the ball leaves his hand.
A slow roller turns into a sprint he expects to win. A bunt becomes a decision he forces the hitter to regret. Even a routine comebacker carries danger, and he treats it that way.
Sports Info Solutions credited Fried with 10 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, the top mark among pitchers. The details explain why it was not a fluke. He finished with 39 assists, the most at his position, and he added 7 combined pickoffs and pitcher caught stealings, a sneaky way to keep innings from inflating.
New York did not chase him for glove work. The Yankees signed him because he could stabilize a rotation in October. His defense adds a side benefit that shows up in the smallest moment, when a runner takes one cautious shuffle instead of a confident lead.
9. Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres, right field
Right field can feel far away until the arm makes it feel close.
Tatis plays the position like a dare. He climbs walls, charges balls that beg for a bounce. He throws with the kind of violence that makes a runner hesitate halfway to third.
Sports Info Solutions had Tatis at 15 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, tied for second among right fielders and one behind the leader. He also led the majors with 3 home run robbing catches and piled up 28 Good Fielding Plays, the type of plays that turn doubles into outs and outs into momentum.
San Diego has paid for star power for years. Tatis gives them something rarer than a headline. He gives them fear.
8. Mookie Betts, Dodgers, shortstop
Shortstop exposes you. Betts did not flinch.
His feet stay quiet, hands stay clean. His throws arrive on time without panic.
Sports Info Solutions credited Betts with 17 Defensive Runs Saved at shortstop in 2025, tied with Taylor Walls for the positional lead. The award carries extra weight here because Betts also won the Fielding Bible Award at shortstop, becoming the first Dodgers shortstop to do it.
That is prestige, but it is also a statement. Stars do not often volunteer for harder defensive work. Betts moved into the middle of the diamond and made the hard play look like routine, the kind of routine that buys a pitcher another inning.
7. Matt Olson, Braves, first base
First base defense hides in plain sight. Olson drags it into the light.
A throw pulls him off the bag and he still finds the edge. A short hop bites and he smothers it. A bunt trickles and he charges like the out matters more than comfort.
Sports Info Solutions put Olson at 17 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, his career high. One number tells you how involved he stayed. Olson logged 145 assists, leading all first basemen and finishing plays other first basemen let drift into chaos.
Durability becomes its own defensive skill, too. Olson played every game again and carried 782 consecutive games, the active MLB lead at the time. A defender cannot save runs from the bench. Olson never visits it.
6. Nico Hoerner, Cubs, second base
Second base gives you no time. Hoerner plays like time belongs to him.
The hardest balls for a second baseman are the ones that knife toward right field and threaten to leak into the outfield. Hoerner kept closing that lane, again and again, until it felt like the gap stopped existing.
Sports Info Solutions credited him with 17 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, best among second basemen. The separator lived in one direction. He finished 15 Plays Saved better than the average second baseman on balls hit to his right, a season long theft of hits up the middle.
Chicago leaned into this identity. The Cubs earned the inaugural Defensive Team of the Year honor from the Fielding Bible group, and Hoerner’s steadiness at second base served as the cleanest symbol of it.
5. Patrick Bailey, Giants, catcher
Fans rarely cheer framing in the second inning. Pitchers do.
Bailey receives the ball like it belongs exactly where the umpire wants to see it. He steals strikes without a flourish. Hitters feel the count tilt and cannot point to the exact moment it happened.
Sports Info Solutions credited Bailey with 19 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, the top mark among catchers. Then the stat that makes you stop shows up. He posted 40 Strike Zone Runs Saved, driven by elite framing that turned borderline pitches into strikes.
San Francisco understands catcher defense as culture, not just craft. Buster Posey moved into the Giants president of baseball operations role on September 30, 2024, and the franchise now builds with a catcher’s brain in charge. Bailey fits that timeline like a glove. He wins small edges until the inning ends.
4. Ke’Bryan Hayes, Reds, third base
Third base punishes hesitation. Hayes never hesitates.
A line drive smokes toward the line and he moves like he read it off the bat. A hard chopper takes a bad hop and he stays balanced anyway. The position asks for courage, and he keeps paying the price.
Sports Info Solutions credited Hayes with 19 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, leading all third basemen. The long view hits harder. He stacked 95 runs saved since the start of 2020, a gap that towers over the rest of the position.
The uniform change still needs a sentence for anyone who blinked at the deadline. Cincinnati acquired Hayes from Pittsburgh on July 30, 2025, a trade that made more sense if you believe defense can carry a team through tight games.
In a one run night, a third baseman who turns chaos into an out feels like a cheat code.
3. Ceddanne Rafaela, Red Sox, center field
Center field looks like speed until you watch the routes. Rafaela runs the right routes, then makes them look like pure speed anyway.
He closes gaps before the ball lands, takes away doubles that outfielders usually concede. He treats the warning track like extra grass.
Sports Info Solutions credited Rafaela with 20 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, best among center fielders. Volume backed up the value. He recorded 27 Good Fielding Plays, the most of any center fielder, a signal that the production came from both skill and relentless effort.
Boston has chased offense forever. Rafaela gives the staff something else. He gives pitchers the confidence to challenge hitters, because they know the outfield will not blink.
2. Ernie Clement, Blue Jays, multi position
Versatility can sound like a bench label. Clement turned it into a star level skill.
One night he plays third. The next he plays second. Then he fills in elsewhere without looking like a visitor.
Sports Info Solutions credited Clement with 22 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, tied for the top mark in all of MLB. The split makes the season feel rare. He posted 11 runs saved at third base and 10 runs saved at second base, reaching double digits at two different infield spots in the same season, something almost no one does.
That changes how a manager writes a lineup card in 2026. One elite multi position defender does not just cover injuries. He lets a team carry an extra bat or an extra reliever because the defense stays stable no matter how the pieces shift.
1. Steven Kwan, Guardians, left field
Left field used to be a place you hid somebody. Kwan turned it into a weapon.
He plays the corner like a defender who expects the runner to test him, because runners always do. Then he punishes the test.
Sports Info Solutions credited Kwan with 22 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, tied for the most in baseball and ten more than the next closest left fielder. The arm separated him from every other corner outfielder. He posted 7 Outfield Arm Runs Saved, an outlier number, and he added 10 assists without a cutoff man, a detail that tells you how often he ended ambition by himself.
Effort showed up in bulk, too. Kwan recorded 29 Good Fielding Plays, the most of any left fielder.
MLB Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) Leaders by Position 2026 begins with him because he turned a “bat first” spot into a place where runs go to die.
What this means when 2026 turns tight
This is where the 2026 framing earns its place. Defense carries differently than offense, especially in high leverage games. A hitter can run cold for a week. A great defender can still take away a hit tonight.
Front offices know it. Managers feel it. Players talk about it in quieter tones, usually after a loss.
Catchers who steal the zone change pitch counts. Infielders who erase the right side lane shorten innings. Outfielders with aggressive arms reshape decisions before the ball even reaches the wall.
That is why MLB Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) Leaders by Position 2026 reads like a warning label for October. The names on this list do not need a hot streak to impact a game. They can do it with one play.
Picture the moment that haunts hitters. Bottom of the ninth. One run lead. Runner on second. Two outs. A clean single wins it. A line drive into left field ends the season.
The left fielder charges, takes it on a hop, and throws a rope to the plate. The runner sees the ball leave the glove and slams the brakes halfway home.
That is the image I cannot shake. That is the question that stays.
When the season sits on one ball in play, who takes the run away anyway.
MLB Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) Leaders by Position 2026 gives you ten answers, all pulled from 2025 reality, all pointing at 2026 pressure.
Source note: Sports Info Solutions, 2025 Fielding Bible Awards and Defensive Runs Saved results (released October 23, 2025). MLB.com reporting on the Ke’Bryan Hayes trade (July 30, 2025) and the Giants front office timeline for Buster Posey (September 30, 2024).
Read More: The “Mendoza Line” Club: MLB Stars Struggling to Hit .200 in 2026
FAQs
Q1. What does Defensive Runs Saved mean in MLB?
A1. Defensive Runs Saved estimates how many runs a fielder saved versus an average player at the same position.
Q2. Are these DRS numbers from 2026?
A2. No. The DRS totals come from the 2025 regular season, and the story uses them to frame a 2026 outlook.
Q3. Who led MLB in DRS in 2025?
A3. Steven Kwan and Ernie Clement tied with 22 Defensive Runs Saved.
Q4. Why is Ke’Bryan Hayes listed as a Red?
A4. Cincinnati acquired Ke’Bryan Hayes at the July 30, 2025 trade deadline, so he appears in a Reds context here.
Q5. Why does defense matter more in tight games?
A5. A hitter can go cold, but an elite defender can still erase a hit with one play and keep a season alive.
I bounce between stadium seats and window seats, chasing games and new places. Sports fuel my heart, travel clears my head, and every trip ends with a story worth sharing.
