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By now, the baseball enthusiast has very likely become accustomed to the tidal regularity with which Blue Jays fly-catcher Kevin Pillar makes miracle snares. While the collective isn't so shocking anymore, we can still take Baseball Delight in each individual gemstone.

For instance, here's this one from Tuesday night's game against the Diamondbacks (ARI 4, TOR 2):

Well then. Now for some Statcast numbers on that catch, which Pillar made at great personal hazard ...

"RE" is route efficiency, which measures how direct the fielder's path to the ball was. As you can see, balls hit in such a manner are rarely turned into outs.

Also, know that this catch is begging for some day-after "chalk outline" treatment ...

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USATSI

After Tuesday night's loss, Pillar is batting just .258/.290/.412 on the year. Those aren't impressive numbers, especially given the hitter-friendly nature of his home park.

However, Pillar adds some value on the bases and a great deal of value in the field. Sometimes, a fielder will make a number of highlight plays while not otherwise being a great defender. In Pillar's case, he not only purveys these moments of brilliance, but he also grades out as one of the most valuable defenders in all of baseball.

To (somewhat superficially) explore this very matter, let's turn to the Defense statistic (Def) available at FanGraphs. Def is a player's runs saved over and above an average defender with those numbers adjusted to reflect positional difficulty (i.e., shortstop is more challenging than first base, center is more challenging than left).

As with all defensive metrics, it's not a perfect measure, particularly over samples less than three full seasons (and most of them give short shrift to catchers). So consider the following table of Def leaders for 2016 to be for informational purposes only. Your Def leaders for 2016 so far:

RankFielder2016 Def (runs saved)
1.Kevin Pillar, CF, Blue Jays
16.4
2.Brandon Crawford, SS, Giants
12.8
3.Adam Eaton, RF, White Sox
11.6
4.Nolan Arenado, 3B, Rockies
9.6
5.Freddy Galvis, SS, Phillies
9.4
T-6.Adrian Beltre, 3B, Rangers
9.1
T-6.Salvador Perez, C, Royals
9.1
8.Francisco Lindor, SS, Indians
9.0
9.Jason Kipnis, 2B, Indians
8.8
10.Nick Ahmed, SS, Diamondbacks
8.3

(Aside: Def sees Jay Bruce of the Reds, with -17.6 runs, as the worst defender of 2016 so far.)

Above you see many names who are indeed regarded as some of the best fielders in baseball. When the numbers dovetail with reputation and the eye test, then you can probably put more stock in them. So it is with Pillar, who ended up eighth in all of baseball in Def last season.

We probably overstate how many position players remain valuable despite not hitting all that much, but Pillar surely numbers among them. If the 27-year-old one day shows significant skills growth at the plate, then we could be talking about an MVP candidate.