For the last two seasons, the Oakland A’s have sported by far baseball’s worst defense. The year before that, in 2015, they led MLB in errors. This has been a team-wide effort, with negative performances all over the field and almost no individuals standing out as meaningfully better than average. It’s been ugly out there.
But help has arrived, in the form of third baseman Matt Chapman. His defense has been highly touted since the beginning of his pro career, and entering this year MLB Pipeline gave him the following grades on the 20-to-80 scale: 70 for his fielding, and 75 for his arm.