Third base
Eleven third basemen met the standard of 500 plate appearances in both seasons, and those 11 included some of the game’s front rank stars. Rafael Devers was in the group as were Nolan Arenado, Austin Riley, Jose Ramirez and Manny Machado.
The WAR category was nip-and-tuck, going to Ramirez by the smallest of margins. With WARS of 6.7 and 6.0, he totaled 12.7 for the two seasons, edging out Riley (6.1+6.5=12.6) by a tenth of a point.
Arenado finished third in WAR, ahead of Machado and Devers.
OPS+ proved to be even closer. Both Machado and Ramirez averaged 145 for those two seasons, tying for first. Riley, at 138.5, stood third, barely ahead of Devers and Arenado.
Riley also led in availability, piling up 1,355 plate appearances, or 93.6 percent of Semien’s theoretical maximum. Ramirez accumulated 1,321, but that was only good for second best, with Machado third, Devers fourth and Arenado fifth.
Reduced to ordinal ranks, the final verdict went to Ramirez based on his finishes of first, first and second for an average placing of 1.33. Riley, with finishes of second, third and first for an average of 2.00, was second, with Machado, Devers and Arenado trailing in that order.