Michael Zagaris/Getty Images

Athletics 3B Matt Chapman Wins Overall Defensive Player of the Year Award

Rob Goldberg

Oakland Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman was named the 2018 Wilson Overall Defensive Player of the Year. 

The award is given to the best defender in the majors during the season at any position, and Chapman stood above the rest to get the well-deserved honor. He is the first Athletics player to win the award in its seven-year history, per 95.7 The Game.

Chapman is also the first third baseman to win the honor and just the third infielder out of nine recipients (the awards were handed out by the league in the first two years).

The 25-year-old had an outstanding season in the field and it was seen in several defensive metrics:

His 3.5 defensive wins above replacement also led the majors, per Baseball Reference.

For those who don't trust analytics, the eye test was also impressive throughout the year:

This helped him win the Gold Glove award in his first full year at this level, while his 24 home runs and .864 OPS made him a breakout player across baseball.

Considering he has still only played 229 career games, Chapman is basically just getting started in his career and will likely take home more hardware before it's all said and done.

No one has ever won the Overall Defensive Player of the Year twice, but the A's star has a chance to break the trend based on his talent at the position.

   

Read 0 Comments

Download the app for comments Get the B/R app to join the conversation

Install the App
×
Bleacher Report
(120K+)