In the world of baseball, evaluating a player’s defensive prowess has always been a challenge. Traditional metrics like fielding percentage often fall short, as they don’t account for the defensive range of a player.
Enter Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), a statistic that revolutionized how defense is measured in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Developed by Baseball Info Solutions and introduced in 2003, DRS quantifies the number of runs a player saves or costs their team relative to an average player.
A positive DRS indicates above-average defense, with elite fielders typically achieving figures between 15 and 20 in a season.