By Mark Simon

The Los Angeles Dodgers have pulled off a defensive trifecta.

They rank first in how often they turn a ground ball or bunt into an out.

They rank first in how often they turn a ball hit in the air into an out.

So, it should be no surprise that they rank first in Defensive Runs Saved. 

MLB Team Leaders - Defensive Runs Saved

This isn't new. The Dodgers ranked third in Runs Saved in each of the last three seasons. But it is different.

Center fielder Andy Pages is by far the Dodgers' most valuable defensive player. He leads the position with 14 Runs Saved (yes, even more than Pete Crow-Armstrong). Pages was one of our Defensive Player of the Month winners in May and we've previously documented his turnaround from the -8 Runs Saved he had in 2024 and the -1 in 2025.

Pages' defensive excellence is a combination of his range and his arm. He's done it with his arm before (he's matched his 5 Outfield Arm Runs Saved from last season). Range wise, Pages had not fared well in center field in 2024 or 2025 but had done well in right field in past two seasons. Most right fielders don't convert to center field and rack up Runs Saved at the same or a better rate, but Pages has done so in 2026. 

The Dodgers are turning 71.7% of balls hit in the air into outs compared to their 67.6% rate last year. If they had last year's out rate, they would have turned 29 fewer balls into outs.

The team had previously been pretty good at turning grounders into outs last year but there's one new player in the mix this season.

Rookie Alex Freeland's 7 Runs Saved rank third among second basemen. He's been a notable part of the team's standout infield performance playing alongside veterans Mookie Betts (4 Runs Saved), Max Muncy (4), and Freddie Freeman (2). For Betts and Muncy, those are continuations of past success. Betts won a Fielding Bible Award at shortstop last year. Muncy had a positive Runs Saved total in three of the last four seasons. 

In Freeman's case, he had a good defensive history for a good chunk of his career but that had petered out as he aged the last few seasons. The 2 Runs Saved are a nice turnaround from his -7 last season.

Another turnaround has come from catcher Will Smith, who totaled -8 Runs Saved in 2024 and -5 in 2025 largely due to his pitch-framing dropping off. But he's returned to the form that made him a solid pitch framer from 2021 to 2023. He has 5 Runs Saved in total, which ranks tied for 4th among catchers.

The Dodgers have also minimized the damage done by defenders not performing well. The worst Runs Saved totals on the team are Kyle Tucker, Roki Sasaki, and Dalton Rushing's -2. Teoscar Hernández, who was shaky when he played left field in 2024, has been fine so far in 2026. He has 0 Runs Saved.

In rattling off all these players and numbers, it becomes evident that the Dodgers defense is different from the ones that won the World Series the last two years. The championship teams of 2024 and 2025 got the majority of their Runs Saved from defensive positioning, a value we track within our out probability calculations. On this year's team, the players have earned it with their skill and play making.

Dodgers Defensive Runs Saved Breakdown

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