Why do defensive metrics hate Mariners’ J.P. Crawford so much?

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Matt Brash’s reaction told everything.

In the eighth inning Saturday night, with the Mariners clinging to a two-run lead and a runner at first base, the Angels’ Randal Grichuk barreled Brash’s 99-mph fastball and hit a sharp two-hopper up the middle.

This is where J.P. Crawford, cape free, entered the picture.

Crawford dived to his left, fielded the grounder with his glove and, as he was still falling onto his chest, flipped it with his glove to Jose Caballero at second base to start a 6-4-3 double play.

Just J.P. being J.P., right?

“I don’t want to say ‘wow’ anymore,” first baseman Ty France said. “Because, honestly, it feels like he’s doing something like that every day.”

In the dugout between innings, Brash put both hands on Crawford’s shoulders, stared his shortstop dead in the eyes and, without saying a word, offered a sincere thank-you tap on the arm.

“He’s obviously amazing,” Brash said Sunday morning. “With the stretch we’re in right now, these are big games for us against a division rival. So that’s a huge play. And, I mean, it seems like he makes that kind of play all the time, and he tends to get overshadowed.”

Where does that play rank among Crawford’s best defensive highlights?

There are so many to choose from – it was just earlier in the week he ended a 6-2 victory over Boston with an all-out diving snag of a Masataka Yoshida line drive up the middle – and Crawford acknowledged it might rank in his personal top 10.

“Just because of the situation in the game,” the 2020 Gold Glove winner said.

What’s he thinking in that moment?

“Just do it,” he said. “The times you start to think about a play like that is when you mess ’em up. So you just go out there and do it.”

Crawford, a 28-year-old from nearby Long Beach, is in the midst of his best big-league season. He has taken ownership of the leadoff spot in the lineup and has been the Mariners’ most valuable player. Case in point: He homered on the first pitch of the game Sunday afternoon, giving him a career-high 10 homers this season.

He leads the team with a Baseball Reference Wins Above Replacement of 3.6 (with Julio Rodriguez second at 3.4), and he ranks third in the American League with a .381 on-base percentage entering Sunday.

Crawford drew two walks in the 3-2 victory over the Angels on Saturday night, extending his walk streak to 10 games – tying the franchise record with Ken Griffey Jr. and Jay Buhner.

Strangely, defensive metrics rate Crawford as having his worst defensive season. His 13 errors this season rank as the fifth most among all defenders in MLB.

And the advanced metrics are particularly unflattering about his defense.

The outs above average metric ranks Crawford 258th out of 262 qualified defensive players this season, with minus-13 OAA, just ahead of someone like Philadelphia outfielder Kyle Schwarber (minus-15).

(Interestingly, Rodriguez ranks No. 6 among all MLB players, and No. 1 among all outfielders, with plus-11 OAA recorded.)

How much weight should you put into those?

Not a ton, the Mariners would argue. Industrywide, defensive metrics generally aren’t as widely accepted as hitting and pitching Statcast metrics.

And the Mariners, like every other MLB team, have their own internal metrics that rate Crawford’s defense better than OAA and other public-facing data like ultimate zone rating and defensive runs saved.

“I don’t even know what half that (stuff) means,” Crawford said. “I’m just going to keep doing my (stuff) every day.”

“Those things – I don’t know,” said Perry Hill, the Mariners veteran infield coach. “The eye test tells me everything I need to know. To me, he’s a top-five shortstop in the American League.”

The Mariners did make some specific adjustments just a few weeks ago to their infield positioning, and they have seen some incremental improvement in that regard.

MLB banned the infield shift, but teams still have leeway to move infielders within their own side of the diamond, and virtually all teams take every inch they can, based on the tendencies of each batter.

Third-base coach Manny Acta is charged with positioning Mariners infielders between each at-bat. A step further, Hill said one of Crawford’s strengths is his ability to get himself in a good spot between each pitch.

“He’s so good at positioning himself and moving with the count and being in the right spots and the right time,” Hill said.