Nolan Arenado Is the Best Third Basemen in the MLB

There are many talented players that patrol the hot corner in baseball: Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson, and Adrian Beltre, amongst many others. But Colorado Rockies’ third basemen Nolan Arenado is the best of the best. This guy does it all. He absolutely rakes at the plate, and makes highlight reel plays on a weekly basis.

When Arenado was drafted out of high school in the second round of the ’09 draft by the Rockies, scouts had nothing but negative reviews about his defense. “He has slow feet. His legs are too thick. He’ll never be more than an average defender at the big league level.” Fast forward to 2017. Arenado is a four-time gold glove winner. He’s known for his bat too, but Arenado’s defense is flawless. This is the strongest part of his game, and it’s clear that he has worked tirelessly to become a spectacular infielder after the criticism his defensive abilities received on draft day in ‘09.

Practice Makes Perfect

Through five seasons in the bigs with Colorado, Arenado holds a .971 fielding percentage in 637 games played. Let’s dig deeper into this. In 2013, his rookie season in the bigs, Arenado had 30 defensive runs saved, which ranked just five behind Manny Machado, who had 35 that year. Fielding percentage is a statistic that shows how many possible runs a player has saved thanks to their defense. Since 2013, including this year thus far, Arenado leads the majors of all active third basemen with 97 DRS in that span. This is proof of how great Nolan Arenado is at his position. This year, he already has 13 DRS, which leads the majors. If you weren’t convinced that Arenado is a superb defender, check out this highlight reel play he made earlier this week that could be the BEST play of the year:

As you can see, Nolan Arenado has an extremely strong arm. Not to mention a great glove, too. One thing I’ve noticed from Arenado is even when he’s making the routine play, he gets the most out of his lower body when making throws across the diamond. Even if he fields a ground ball down the line with minimal time to get a guy out, instead of just throwing across his body with not so much on the throw, he takes a couple steps to get his lower half under him to get more behind the throw. But he also has more than enough arm strength to make that difficult play if there’s a speedy guy running down the first base line. That’s a definite sign of an infielder who knows what he’s doing.

All of this defensive savvy doesn’t come without practice. It’s clear that after Arenado was drafted in 2009, he made it a priority to become a better defender. Amazing enough that he’s now the best third basemen in the league.

Arenado can flat out pick it at the hot corner, but he can also flat out destroy baseballs at the plate.

Offense

Nolan Arenado is currently leading the voting for the National League starting third basemen at the All-Star game in a couple weeks, and for good reason. He’s currently hitting .294 with 15 homers and 61 RBI’s, including a game on June 18 where he clinched the cycle by hitting a walk-off bomb.

Those numbers are quite impressive for the big leagues, but this isn’t a fluke. The California native is a lifetime .286 hitter in the majors, including back-to-back seasons in ’15 and ’16 in which he hit 42 and 41 home runs, respectively. The thing that impresses me the most when watching Nolan Arenado hit is his patience. He rarely chases pitches out of the zone. In his first couple seasons in the big leagues, Arenado was known for chasing pitches out of the strike zone. He looked anxious. Last year it entirely changed, as he had the lowest swing rate of his career. He uses the entire field well in his approach. This year, his pull rate is down to 40% from 45%, and his opposite field hit rate is at 29.9%. So far, that is the best opposite field rate of his career. Almost 50% of his hits this year have come on pitches on the outer half of the plate. Swinging at pitches on the outer half really gives Arenado the chance to extend his hands. His swing is short and quick, not something you normally see from power hitters. Many power hitters in the MLB don’t have short and compact swings like this. Look at Giancarlos Stanton. He has a pretty long swing, but when he does connect, the ball is an absolute mammoth shot. He also tends to strike out a lot, though. Nolan Arenado and Mike Trout are the first two names that come to mind when you think of short, powerful strokes right to the baseball.

NL MVP?

Several critics questioned Arenado’s home run numbers in the last two seasons because he plays in Colorado, a city with high altitude. They’ve voiced that it’s easier for him to hit for power there because of the heavy air. I say give the guy some credit. He found his power stride and took advantage. It’s not because of the air. Sure it may have helped a bit, but I guarantee he still would have hit 30+ homers in '15 and '16.

Another gold glove is definitely on the way for Nolan Arenado. There is no doubt about that. But if he continues to contribute offensively at this rate, there’s definitely a possibility he could be awarded the MVP in the National League.

There is still a whole second half of the season left, but it’s definitely not out the question.