Photo: Marc Goldman/Icon Sportswire

There are a lot of terrific young shortstops in MLB, with Bobby Witt Jr. and Gunnar Henderson being the first that come to mind.

But you know who’s climbing up that list? Twenty-two year old Masyn Winn of the Cardinals.

Winn currently ranks in the top 10 in the NL in Baseball-Reference’s Wins Above Replacement. His defense has a lot to do with that.

Winn handily leads all shortstops in Defensive Runs Saved. His 14 Runs Saved are 6 more than the next-closest player. No other Runs Saved leader has that large of an advantage.

Most Defensive Runs Saved – Shortstops

Since he’s the best at one of the most important positions on the field, it’s not surprising that he leads MLB in Defensive WAR.

Winn is good at going both to his left and to his right. Very good, actually. He has the 4th-highest rate among shortstops at turning opportunities* into outs on balls hit to his left and the 2nd-highest rate on balls hit to his right.

* Opportunity = any ball on which a player has a >0 chance to record an out based on our out probability data

Winn’s also had an abundance of opportunities. His range factor ranks 2nd at the position. He plays the position aggressively (examples here and here).

But the separator for Winn has been effectiveness at turning the double play, something that Runs Saved credits in addition to playmaking. Winn has converted the most double plays of any shortstop in the majors. With the volume of plays he’s made and the difficulty of them, he gets an additional MLB-best 4 Runs Saved just from double plays.

Here’s a fun punchline on Winn and double plays. He’s not just valuable for being able to turn them better than most, he’s also good at avoiding them at the plate. He’s batted 370 times this season, the most of anyone in the majors who has not grounded into a double play.

Most of the double plays Winn turns look routine. But he’s got a few impressive ones like the one below. I’ve watched baseball for more than 40 years and I don’t mind saying that one was an Ozzie Smith-like play.

The Cardinals have had a weird year. They have a negative run differential and their two veteran stars, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have floundered. And yet they’re winning enough to be in the hunt for a playoff spot. With this team, you can’t spell ‘winning’ without the Winn.