Around 2019, something interesting started happening with San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford. His glove started to lose a tiny bit of its ability.
It wasn’t shocking, or even sad. This happens with players, especially shortstops a few years into their 30s.
But something funny happened as Crawford’s glove started to drift towards “very good” after years of “extremely great.” The magic never subsided. The metrics started to paint the picture of a player a little past his prime defensively, and if you looked carefully, that showed up in his range and even in his errors.