Because outfield assists kick ass.
What’s the most aesthetically pleasing play on a baseball field? This is a question I think about a lot, in large part because it has no answer.
My sense is that, if you polled a random group of fans Family Feud style, the number one answer would be some variation of “massive moonshot dong that knocks a satellite out of orbit.” And, yes, I love no-doubt homers, too. But I’m more partial to plays that take a little bit longer to develop: triples, inside-the-park home runs, home run robberies, etc.
The beauty of these type of plays is that they afford you the chance to visualize the many possible outcomes before one of them wins out and comes to pass. And, in that sense, it’s hard to top an outfield assist. As soon as the ball comes off the bat you start mentally calculating where the runners will be when the ball hits the glove. Your anticipation builds as the fielder takes his crow hop. You follow the flight of the ball and then, if the throw is on line, explode in either joy or despair when the ump makes the call.
Outfield assists are at their best when they come from right field, of course, with this Ichiro gem being, perhaps, the gold standard:
The Red Sox are frequently close to the top of the leaderboard in outfield assists. Jarren Duran led the American League this past season with 12, for instance, and a Red Sox outfielder has led the league in this category five out of the last seven seasons. But the Sox have something of a cheat code in that respect: the Green Monster, which puts the left fielder incredibly close to the infield and wrecks all sorts of havoc on balls in play.
So even though Duran led the 2024 team in assists, it was Wilyer Abreu who had the more impressive arm in outfield this past season. And as the Sox rookie was just rewarded with the Gold Glove award, there’s no better time than to relive some of his kick-ass throws. In honor of the Wilyer’s new hardward, here are all nine of this outfield assists from the 20024 season.
Let’s start with this one from way back in April, because it’s a good example of the slow-developing nature of these plays that I’m talking about. Obviously, the more hang time a ball has the more time you have to think about the play, and this one hits the clouds.
But they’re still cool without the hang time:
And it goes without saying that any throws that nab Yankee runners are given extra points. Please note the dejected body language of Yankees third base coach Luis Rojas here. Before Abreu even releases the ball he realizes he’s made a huge mistake.
Yandy Diaz’s body language is pretty great here, too. He really thought he was going to get away with it! Silly Yandy.
Here’s another one for the “I’ve made a huge mistake” file. Does this look like the face of a man who’s just knocked in two runs?
Just be happy with the RBI, you silly hitters-turned-baserunners! Stop trying to get greedy against Wilyer!
This one doesn’t feature a long cannon blast of a throw, but look how many hard things Wilyer has to pull off the get the out. First he dekes the runner, then he handles a wicked hop that almost went over his head (which, yikes, would’ve been a disaster), then he catches and throws in one motion.
And, because baseball, like life, is a team sport we’ll end on two that featured key contributions from Wilyer’s teammates. Here’s Ceddanne, showing that he’s not just slick with the glove hand.
And here’s the best variety of outfield assist there is: a throw from right resulting in a play at the plate.