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The Padres needed Xander Bogaerts to be rock-solid at shortstop this season.
And not because they didn’t have shortstop defense elsewhere on their roster.
Quite the opposite. They had too much of it.
Ha-Seong Kim remains an elite shortstop playing second base. Stick Fernando Ta
tis Jr. back at short, and he's still capable of the spectacular.
Now, imagine the questions that would’ve been raised had Bogaerts arrived in
San Diego and struggled defensively (as he did for much of his early tenure in
Boston).
Instead, through 2 1/2 months, Bogaerts' glove has done the talking. He's made
seemingly every routine play, while also showcasing a bit of range. Entering
play Thursday, Bogaerts ranked fourth among all shortstops in Statcast's Outs
Above Average. He hasn't committed an error since April and has been particula
rly strong coming in on the baseball.
"Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses," manager Bob Melvin said. "What
he does is he does everything on the run really well and throws from differen
t arm angles. That's just kind of been who he is his whole career. He attacks
the baseball and does a lot of stuff on the move, which you don't see a ton of
in the game."
Shortstops don’t typically get better with age. Bogaerts appears to be an exc
eption