The influential
FanGraphs.com site has named Red Sox shortstop
Xander Bogaerts as the Most Improved Defender in all of baseball (2015 over 2014). That's the good news. The bad news is that Xander's 2014 performance was so bad, the site labeled him "unplayable". But, his statistical and "eyeball" improvement in 2015 was so dramatic that he has elevated himself to a 'league-average' defender at short. And, as
FanGraphs' August Fagerstrom states,
"with his bat, and his age, league-average defense at baseball’s toughest position is all Bogaerts needs to be one of the game’s most valuable players."
