Yasiel Puig Was a Terrible, Terrible Baserunner

Yasiel Puig had an impressive rebound season in 2017. He responded to disappointing, injury-marred seasons in 2015-16 with a solid 2.9 WAR this year. Puig greatly improved his plate discipline, increasing his selectivity and his contact rates en route to an 11.2 BB% and 17.5 K%. He has been known for his free-swinging ways since entering the league, but he may have changed that reputation this past season. Puig was not the reckless hitter he had been in the past. However, he may have decided to channel that recklessness to the base paths.

Puig is a good athlete, but has never been much of a base-stealer. In his first two years, he converted a poor 22/37 of his steal attempts, and mostly quit trying to steal in 2015-16. Despite the failures of his base-stealing, he had actually been a slight positive on the bases in his career, accumulating 0.5 runs above average in 2013-16, per FanGraphs’ base-running metric. Puig reverted to his aggressive base-stealing in 2017, and his 15 stolen bases indicated success with the approach. His 71.4% conversion rate was not exceptional, but not horrible. But his base-running had no semblance of success.

Puig was the sixth-worst player on the bases in 2017, accumulating -7.6 runs. He was surrounded by names like Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, and Edwin Encarnacion. Not exactly names you want to be grouped with when talking about base-running.

FanGraphs’ base-running metric encompasses three things: wSB, wGDP, and UBR. wSB measures the run value a player produced based off attempting steals. Puig produced a mediocre mark of 0.1, which lines up with his stolen-base numbers. wGDP measures the ability of a player to avoid double plays. Puig ranked 13th-worst in 2017 with -2.4 runs produced, but wGDP is more related to avoiding ground balls with men on base and beating out throws to first. UBR (Ultimate Base Running), measures the value of a player with respect to non-stealing base-running, like taking an extra base. Puig produced -5.3 runs per UBR, sixth-worst in the league.

Let’s focus on that UBR. Providing context, that figure is a whole lot worse than sixth-lowest in the league. Puig had a speed score of 4.4 in 2017, placing him 80th in the league, among players with at least 400 PA. The five players directly ahead of Puig in UBR had an average speed score of 2.3. That would rank 185th. Considering speed, Puig was likely the worst base-runner in the league. He did things like this, which you probably remember from the World Series:

Puig was probably the worst base-runner in 2017. But how bad was he on a historical level?

Of all individual seasons (min 400 PAs) since 2002, when UBR was introduced, Puig’s UBR ranks lower than the 3rd percentile out of 3393 seasons. Of those individual seasons with a speed score within one standard deviation of Puig’s, his UBR ranks lower than the 1st percentile.

Here is a plot of every one of those seasons, with each player’s stolen-base total versus their UBR. Puig in 2017 is highlighted in yellow.

Obviously, players with higher stolen-base totals are generally faster, and thus produce more value on the bases. As with anything, though, there are outliers. Puig is definitely an outlier. Only one player with as many stolen bases has produced an UBR lower than Puig: Juan Encarnacion in 2003. Here is another chart, with speed score plotted against UBR. Puig again is in yellow.

Puig is again an extreme outlier, even historically. Considering his athleticism, Puig had one of the worst base-running seasons of the last 15 years. This does not mean a ton. Puig has not always been a terrible base-runner, and he was still a quite effective player in 2017, woes on the basepaths aside. He can easily turn it around and produce a solid base-running season with the physical gifts he has. However, in 2017, Puig’s base-running was really, really terrible.