Where did Kevin Pillar rank among MLB center fielders in 2019?

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – SEPTEMBER 09: Kevin Pillar #1 of the San Francisco Giants slides to score at home plate during the sixth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Oracle Park on September 9, 2019 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images) /

The San Francisco Giants swung an early trade for Kevin Pillar in an effort to shore up their outfield defense, and he wound up being one of the team’s top offensive performers.

Not many MLB trades are completed on April 2. However, that’s when the San Francisco Giants sent three players to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Kevin Pillar.

After spending the first six seasons of his career in Toronto, Pillar went 1-for-16 in five games with the Blue Jays before he was shipped to San Francisco in exchange for Alen Hanson, Derek Law and Juan De Paula.

A 32nd-round pick in the 2011 MLB draft, Pillar racked up 14.2 WAR while establishing himself as one of the best defensive center fielders in baseball.

While he served as the team’s primary center fielder, Steven Duggar (39 games) and Mike Yastrzemski (7 games) also saw time at the position.

All told, San Francisco Giants third basemen finished the season with a .261/.294/.433 line and a .727 OPS that ranked 15th in the majors.

While that one all-encompassing offensive statistic tells us that the Giants were near the middle of the pack at the position, what we set out to answer was where Pillar ranked individually.

For the sake of this exercise, we limited the field of players under consideration to guys who spent at least 51 percent of their time at the center field position and also tallied at least 150 plate appearances.

That narrowed the field to just 46 players and ahead is a rundown of where Kevin Pillar ranked among that group in a number of statistical categories.