MLB: The most valuable right fielders of 2019
By Bill Felber
In a position loaded with talent the two National League stars stand out amongst MLB right fielders.
In MLB, we’re pretty much obsessed with the concept of value. We apply a plethora of often exotic statistical approaches to measure it: batting average, slugging, home runs, WAR, OPS+, Defensive Runs Saved, Weighted Runs Created…the list goes on.
The one factor we generally overlook in all these assessments is the most meaningfully value-oriented of all of them: salary. What, precisely, was the player paid – relative to all other players tasked with doing what he was doing – and how much of that pay did he “earn?”
The rating system that follows corrects that oversight. Based on 2019 performance, it measures which players were the most “valuable” as judged by their on-field production relative to their salary. And let it be noted here that we are limiting our focus to on-field value only. Some players, mega stars, are paid based largely on factors unrelated to on-field performance, their drawing power at the gate, their celebrity, their endorsement/promotional potential being among them. Those factors, while acknowledged as real, are not part of this discussion.
Since different positions require different skills, the standard for determining production will vary depending on position…although for position players there will always be an offensive component.
Today, we’re looking at right field, the most talent-rich position in MLB. That spot will be verified by the list of the 10 best players, where on-field values begin at more than $7.5 million and rise to nearly $20 million for the most valuable right fielder. That’s the highest dollar-value of any player in 2019.
A total of 32 players qualified for consideration as right fielders based on having played more innings at that position than any other, and a minimum of 400.
Right field is primarily a power position, but with a distinct defensive caveat. Specifically, a strong throwing arm is a pre-requisite for a good right fielder. Our formula contains three elements: Seventy percent is committed to WAR, 20 percent to innings played, and a final 10 percent to assists.
Here are the pertinent positional averages for those elements. The average positional salary is $6.096 million. Right fielders averaged 2.278 WAR, 980.313 innings on the field, and 5.594 assists.