By Mark Simon

Let's do a sequel to last week's list of the Top 10 Defensive Players in MLB. This time will salute the best young players, and we'll define 'young' as 'entering their age-25-season or younger.'

Ranking them is kind of silly, as the top half of the list would be dominated by center fielders and I've noted in previous Stat of the Weeks that I find ranking across positions challenging. So rather than do that I'm just going to lump the entire list into a "10 best" classification. 

Here's what I've got, in alphabetical order

Addressing the center fielders first: 

Ceddanne Rafaela and Pete Crow-Armstrong both made the Top 10 overall list, so they were automatics here. Rafaela led center fielders in Defensive Runs Saved last season at year's end. Crow-Armstrong was neck-and-neck with Rafaela for most of the season. It wouldn't shock me if either won our Defensive Player of the Year in 2026.

Victor Scott II led center fielders in the range component of Defensive Runs Saved in 2025. He made an abundance of great catches on deep fly balls and had a highlight reel just as good at Rafaela and Crow-Armstrong. What puts him behind those two is that that his outfield arm numbers were poor by both our measures and MLB’s.

For the last few years I've been surprised when I look at the center field Runs Saved leaderboard and don't see Michael Harris II at the very top. Similar to Scott, his Outfield Arm Runs Saved (-2 last year) hurts his case a little bit. But he's another outfielder who can go get the ball and plays every day (160 games in 2025). He turns 25 in March, so this will be his last year on such a list.

Julio Rodríguez, who turned 25 in December, had a career-high 9 Runs Saved last season. After two seasons with negative Outfield Arm Runs Saved, he's tallied 2 Runs Saved in each of the last two seasons, adding value with his arm to already pretty good range. 

And here are the other five in alphabetical order by last name.

Wyatt Langford had a legit Gold Glove case in each of the last two years as a left fielder only to lose out to Riley Greene and Steven Kwan, respectively. He finished second at the position with 12 Runs Saved in 2024 and 2025. While some left fielders' numbers suffer significantly when moved to center, the drop-off isn't as steep for Langford, which makes him a strong inclusion on this list.

Colson Montgomery got off to a very good start defensively with 7 Runs Saved in 60 games at shortstop last season and was particularly adept at getting to balls hit to his right (in the 56 hole). I'm a little nervous about this one because his minor league numbers weren't great, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt based on the 55 fielding scouting grade that MLB gave him in 2024.

Defensive Runs Saved has gauged Zach Neto to be a very good defensive shortstop in each of the last two seasons, though he wasn't a Gold Glove finalist in either year. One thing that may get overlooked is that he has 9 Double Play Runs Saved in that time. In other words, he's turning more double plays than expected. Those 9 Runs Saved are the most in MLB in that time.

Javier Sanoja won the National League utility player Gold Glove last season and deservedly so. He played six positions last season, two particularly well in brief stints. He had 5 Runs Saved at second base and 4 Runs Saved at third base.

Masyn Winn led shortstops in Runs Saved and won the Fielding Bible in 2024 but dropped back to 2 Runs Saved last season. Nonetheless, he did cut back significantly on his combined Defensive Misplays and Errors (the former being something our Data Scouts track) and my expectation would be that he'll be good again in 2026. I'm picking Winn over Ezequiel Tovar here, who was in a similar situation. It's a tough call.

Honorable Mention: Roman Anthony (Red Sox RF), Corbin Carroll (Diamondbacks RF), Gunnar Henderson (Orioles IF), Kyle Karros (Rockies 3B), Matt Shaw (Cubs 3B), Cam Smith (Astros RF), Tyler Soderstrom (A's LF), Ezequiel Tovar (Rockies SS), Anthony Volpe (Yankees SS), Carson Williams (Rays SS), Ben Williamson (Rays 3B).

And we'll add consensus No. 1 overall prospect Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin, who has 0 MLB games played. He tied for the lead in Runs Saved among minor league shortstops last season.

What would your Top 10 list be? Share it with me at [email protected].

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