Pittsburgh Pirates: Ke’Bryan Hayes an Example of Why Errors is a Misleading Stat

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes has made some errors this year, but is a perfect example of why it’s time to make errors an afterthought.

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes is arguably the best defensive third baseman baseball. He’s so good at defending the hot corner that the Pirates felt confident enough to have him play a couple of innings at shortstop. He’s probably not going to start playing shortstop regularly, but it shows how much more they think of putting him in at short for a couple of innings late into games over Cole Tucker.

Now everyone knows how good Hayes is at defending third base. But what many don’t know is the number of errors he has made so far. He’s made four in this young season with a fielding percentage of .951. Another thing many fans don’t know is how poor of an indicator of defensive ability errors and fielding percentage are. Hayes is a perfect example of this.

Hayes has +5 Defensive Runs Saved, a +11.5 UZR/150, and +1 Outs Above Average. Those are all among the best defenders in baseball right now. But his fielding percentage of .951? That comes in among the bottom 15th.

Now ask yourself this: is Hayes really a worse defender than Rafael Devers and his .986 fielding percentage? Is he really a worse fielder than Eduardo Escobar and his .974 fielding percentage? Obviously, the answer is no.

This isn’t an outlier either. Nolan Arenado, who is just one Gold Glove away from tying Mike Schmidt for the most of the award from a National League third baseman, has a .957 fielding percentage. It’s not a coincidence that some of the best defensive third basemen of all time, like Adrian Beltre, Mike Schmidt, and Robin Ventura, aren’t in the top 50 of fielding percentage among third basemen of all time. Beltre and Brooks Robinson averaged over ten errors every 1000 innings at the hot corner. Heck, Schmidt, and George Brett each averaged over 15 errors every 1000 innings at third base. Yet I don’t hear about how their errors were so costly, or they were bad because they made many errors every season.

Third basemen are just simply prone to errors. The highest single-season league average fielding percentage third basemen have put up since 1970 is .960 in 2019 and 2021. Even pitchers put up higher fielding percentages on average compared to third basemen. Third basemen make errors all the time. Hayes’ .951 fielding percentage are pretty common, even among the best hot corner defenders of all time.

Look, it’s hard for many to move on from the traditional stats, but we’re looking at one of the best defensive third basemen the game has seen in quite some time regardless of the errors or what fielding percentage says. Hayes is a perfect reason why errors are an afterthought in today’s game. If you’re gonna call Hayes a bad defender, then you also need to call  George Brett a bad defender, and Mike Schmidt a bad defender.

You also need to call Brooks Robinson only a borderline top 10 defender at the hot corner and Placido Polanco the best defensive third baseman of all time, since he leads all third basemen in fielding percentage.