Jason Heyward was named major league Defensive Player of the Month for June by ESPN.com’s SweetSpot blog, which uses sophisticated statistical analysis and a voting panel to determine a winner.
Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons won the award twice last year en route to winning a Gold Glove as the National League’s top defensive shortstop and Platinum Glove as the league’s overall best defensive player.
Among the Braves, if there was any surprise when Heyward won the award Wednesday, it was only that it took this long for him to win it. Simmons has said that he’d pay money to see Evan Gattis hit or to see Heyward play in the outfield.
“He’s unbelievable out there,” Braves catcher Gerald Laird said of Heyward. “And the thing is, you totally respect him because he gets off to that slow start this year (offensively), and you know it’s going to come, but it never affects his defense. You respect a player like that. He brings it (defensively) if he’s got two hits or no hits.
“If he can’t get a hit and drive in a run he’s going to save a run with a defensive play. And that’s when you know he’s a great player. It speaks volumes about him. You wouldn’t know if he’s 0-for-4 or 4-for-4 because on defense he brings it, and if he ain’t driving in runs he’s saving runs on defense.”
Heyward was 3-for-32 (.094) with one RBI in his past 11 games before Wednesday, but the Braves were 8-3 in those games and Heyward has had plenty to do with it. He had nine walks and only one strikeout in that span, and has had a hit, walk or moved a runner over in some big situations during the Braves’ six-game winning streak before Wednesday. Like his defense, his baserunning has been outstanding all season.
Before his recent hitting slump, Heyward batted .296 with a .368 OBP, 18 extra-base hits and 24 RBIs in 55 games from April 20 through June 20.
Not letting hitting slumps affect his defensive performance is a point of pride with Heyward, who believes he’s a better outfielder today than when he won his first and only (so far) Gold Glove in 2012.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m stronger, faster, but definitely smarter. The field feels even smaller now, just as far as knowing you have to be with certain guys, and certain counts, knowing where to proceed to. Again, you can’t cover it all, but you just want to try to be at the right place more times than not. After that, everything is going to be hustle and trying not to let guys take extra bases, and trying to make good throws.
“I don’t know how many assists I have this year, but I feel like a lot of them are just because I’m throwing to the right guy at the right spot, and hitting the cutoff man.”
He has six assists, one off the NL lead before Wednesday, but Heyward had none recently because teams all but stopped running on him if a play might be close.
Simmons led the majors in both Defensive Runs Saved and Defensive WAR in 2013, compiling a 5.4 total in the latter category to tie for the best score in the 40 years that complete defensive play-by-play data has been available, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Heyward is the 2014 MLB leader in both categories and has a 2.3 Defensive WAR just past the halfway point of the season.
“It’s just good to keep runs off the board, any way you can,” Heyward said. “Because you can (score) five, but if they put up eight … you need to cut down runs whenever you can, especially at home when you can have last at-bats and you can chip away and get a run. That’s big. That’s what helps, I think, in the playoffs and to win a World Series. It’s not going to be who can outscore who, it’s going to be who can keep the other team from scoring. So defense is definitely huge.”
Heyward tied for the MLB lead with eight defensive runs saved in June and had 24 for the season according to SweetSpot, which said Heyward in June “was credited with six ‘Good Fielding Plays’ (think Web-Gem nominees), all for terrific catches, and went the entire month without a Defensive Misplay or error.”
Of his 24 Defensive Runs Saved this season, SweetSpot said, “That has been compiled largely based on his ability to catch balls hit to the deepest part of right field (in fact, that makes up almost the entirety of those 24 Runs Saved). Heyward caught 53 of 55 balls hit to spots at speeds for which the expected play rate was greater than 50 percent, according to data provided by Baseball Info Solutions (in other words, he made just about all the plays he should make).”
Previous 2014 winners of the Defensive Player of the Month award were Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and Oakland outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.
After winning a Gold Glove as the NL’s best defensive right fielder in 2012, then not winning one last year when he bounced between right and center field, Heyward said he hadn’t made it a goal to win another.
“For me that’s going to take care of itself,” he said. “I didn’t set out to win it in ’12. I didn’t set out to win it any year. I just want to do the best I can and I know I can play it very well.”
