One number behind the Reds' improved defense

It’s the bottom of the sixth inning on Wednesday, and the Giants have two outs and two runners on. Willy Adames then hits a rocket down the line. If Santiago Espinal wasn’t perfectly positioned, then he wouldn’t have had a chance to make the slick play on the ground ball just to his right.

The young Reds season has already included a number of groundouts where the team’s defensive positioning made a big difference.

“We’re following the cards,” Reds bench coach Freddie Benavides said. “It’s been pretty much right on.”

Just like every other team in baseball, the infielders carry notecards into the field that tell them where to line up on just about every pitch. There are different cards for different pitchers as the positioning plan changes when different guys are on the mound, and the infielders adjust to the tendencies of each hitter that they’re facing.

But this season has already revealed one stunning trend. The Reds are doing something nearly two-times more often than the next-best team in baseball, and they’re doing something over 50% of the time that more than half of the teams in baseball do fewer than 5% of the time.

When a right-handed hitter is at the plate for the other team, the Reds’ infielders are “shading” 53.3% of the time.

Shading is defined as “at least one fielder is positioned outside the area of the field they're typically responsible for. (Example: The SS is ‘shaded’ when playing up the middle against a LHB or toward the 3B zone against a RHB).”

The Angels shade their infielders the second-most in MLB, but that’s just 37% of the time vs. righties. No other team shades its infielders more than 13% of the time vs. righties. Four teams (the Mets, Phillies, Marlins and Giants) haven’t shaded their infield all season.

Credit to @redsinfour for identifying the shading trend earlier this week.

It’s always interesting when a team employs a strategy consistently that some teams never even try.

“We’re following the plan that the analytics staff puts together as well as the instincts that some of our infielders see off of some specific hitters,” Benavides said. “To our benefit, it’s worked.”

You have to see it to understand just how drastic the difference is between the Reds’ infield alignment and the Phillies.

Here are the Reds.

Here are the Phillies

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“Different teams do different things,” Benavides. “It’s different analytics. Our analytics department is doing great, and our defense is making plays.”

It’s also completely different from what the Reds did last season. In 2024, they only shaded their infielders 8.5% of the time vs. righties.

Go back to the 2025 Reds’ chart. It starts with De La Cruz playing deep in the hole at shortstop. Because of his incredible range and his terrific arm, he can play from a very position, cover a ton of ground and still get the throw to first base on time.

Because of De La Cruz’s range, the third baseman also gets to play further back and guard the line more. Because of the third baseman’s deeper positioning, Espinal was in position to take away that potential game-tying single from Adames on Wednesday.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s range at first base is also very strong. With the current alignment, he’s being asked to cover a whole lot of ground on the right side of the field. And then, the second baseman is positioned pretty much as far to the right as he can get with the current shift restrictions and is close to behind the second base bag.

Over the last few days, since McLain tweaked his hamstring and wasn't in the lineup, the Reds have scaled back a bit their shading strategy. They haven’t done it as often because their other second basemen can’t cover as much ground as McLain. When McLain was healthy and playing next to De La Cruz, Benavides said that the Reds got to be even more aggressive with their infield positioning.

“There were some Rangers hitters, our card said 01, which is a right-hander opposite, but it would have McLain at a max,” Benavides said. “We can’t do that because those two guys have such great range that they’ll knock into each other. We’ll pull Elly over or McLain over because they both have tremendous range.”

Still, even with McLain now out, the Reds are lapping the field with how often they shade their infield.

The Reds are pleased with their infield defense so far, and every detail counts.