Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?
It is appropriate to begin by reflecting on what Chico said to Margaret Dumont Duck soupbecause being a fan of the White Sox is a lot like watching a Marx Brothers movie – just without as much laughter. The phrase is especially appropriate when defense is on the agenda, although it can be modified to “Who are you going to believe, statistics or your own eyes?”
The Gold Glove nominations came out this week and it’s no surprise that no Sox player was on the list. The only player who even remotely qualifies is Luis Robert Jr., who has been there before. But Luis still likes to make all his throws to home or third using an invisible drone that flies over the stadium instead of on a line, so there are better choices.
Didn’t it look like the defense was better this season? Most of the outfielders seemed to have had some idea where to go or throw, at least with the exception of Lenyn Sosa, who apparently had no baseball instincts?
Certainly. And your eyes were right. For the most part. Certainly as far as Baseball-Reference is concerned. BR and FanGraphs tend to come up with very similar numbers for batting or pitching evaluations, but they apparently have very different algorithms when it comes to fielding, so they can disagree quite a bit. In the case of the Sox, BR is much more generous.
BR has the Sox at 19th in their Defensive Efficiency category for 2025, up from 25th in 2024. FanGraphs has them at 28th in DEF, their roughly equivalent category, up from 30th a year earlier. Yes, the last death in 2024, no surprise.
BR generously lists the Sox with just -10 defensive runs saved for 2o25, putting them at 27th, while FanGraphs has them just a step lower at 28th, but with a much heavier -37.2 run horror. In both cases, however, it is two rungs higher on the ladder than it was in 2024, with FanGraphs giving away 19 fewer points and Baseball-Reference only six.
By the way, BR is also showing improvement per player, from -8.1 dWAR in 2024 to just -2.8 in 2025, likely indicating that defensive improvement was responsible for almost a third of the overall rebound.
“But what about the years when the entire team wasn’t so terrible?” You might ask. Well, let’s take a look, ten years back in time.
In 2015, a season that we all thought at the time was really bad because the record was 76-86 (we didn’t know what was coming), it certainly wasn’t a defense that the stats people liked. FanGraphs had the Sox 20th in DEF, while BR marked them all the way to 28th. Oddly enough, that changed when it came to run saving, with FanGraphs ranking the Sox 23rd at -14, while BR had them just -1, good for 17th. Don’t ask about zone type classifications unless you’ve had a few solid straps of limeade first.
“Maybe a year where the team was really good?” you now ask hesitantly. Honest question. There aren’t many to choose from this century, so let’s go to the big one, way back when, when the Chicago American League Team had a real manager and managed to surprise the world. Or at least the baseball world.
Was defense a key to the 2005 team’s success? You better believe it. Good enough to make the oh-so-successful pitching staff very happy.
FanGraphs ranked that team seventh in Defensive Runs Saved, with a solid +39. BR had them ninth, albeit at only +6. FanGraphs also ranked the championship team seventh in the overall DEF category, while Baseball-Reference put them all the way to second in Defensive Efficiency, behind only the A’s. Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships, and all that.
A bit of bad luck looking at 2005 is that FanGraphs hadn’t started measuring framing yet, so we can’t see how AJ would have measured up. Unfortunately, we can see that while rookie catchers did very well at the plate in 2025, they ranked 27th in the MLB in framing – although that was an increase from 29th the year before.
But 2015 was a banner year for White Sox catcher framing, way up on the upside and fourth in the majors. “Who were those great backstops,” you ask? Of course it was Tyler Flowers and Geovany Soto. How could you forget? Flowers even got credit for saving 11 runs and throwing out 25.4% of would-be base stealers, which was much better than the 2025 catchers, but they were rookies and will definitely improve on some. Right?
What does that all mean?
Well, it looks like Sox fans would do well to revive their old high school football cheer – the one that starts with, “Give me a D!!!!”
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