Matt Chapman's oddly strong defensive season for the SF Giants in 2026

Matt Chapman played his final game of the year for the SF Giants at the end of June. Despite this, he still ranked as one of the best defensive third baseman at his position, and likely would have won some type of award for it.

The 2026 campaign was a down year for the veteran third baseman. On offense, he posted a .692 OPS with seven home runs and 42 RBI in 352 plate appearances. Through the first two months of the year, he only had one home run, but rebounded by adding six more in June.

Chapman landed on the injured list with an abdominal strain. It seemed like he would return at some point, but he eventually underwent season-ending surgery to repair a core muscle injury. He sustained the injury earlier in the year and played through it for a couple of months.

The 10-year veteran will have to buck a recent trend. He was once one of the more durable players in baseball, but he has now missed extensive time in each of the past two seasons. That usually happens as a player ages, and Chapman will be entering his age-34 season in 2027.

One trend that has not changed is how Chapman has rated defensively. He is one of the best defensive third basemen of his era, winning five Gold Glove Awards and two Platinum Glove Awards. By some measures, he may have had a chance to add another Gold Glove to his résumé if he had not missed the second half of the year.

SF Giants third baseman Mat Chapman was the leader in a couple of key defensive metrics

Through August 9, the SABR Defensive Index (SDI) ranked Chapman among the best NL defenders. This metric updates a couple of times throughout the season and accounts for 25 percent of the Gold Glove voting. In its latest update, Chapman had registered 11.9 SDI, behind only Andy Pages (12.0 SDI) of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pete Crow-Armstrong (13.4 SDI) of the Chicago Cubs.

Chapman also led all NL third baseman by a huge margin. Max Muncy of the Dodgers was second with 4.8 SDI. The Giants' third baseman would have had the objective component in his favor for the Gold Glove Award.

In addition to this, Chapman put up 15 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), which tied Alex Bregman of the Cubs for the lead among all third basemen. This metric is heavily factored into the Fielding Bible Award, so he would have had a shot at this as well. While Chapman continued to post strong defensive numbers, he likely will not be a candidate for either award due to missing much of the season.

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