Cleveland Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio has made headlines this year for his offensive breakout. A mediocre hitter in the past, he had a 106 wRC+ before Thursday’s game against the Chicago White Sox, with five home runs and a career-high 14 stolen bases.
However, we tend to forget what an incredible defensive player he is. Sports Info Solutions (SIS) didn’t forget, though, and gave him a cool recognition.
“Glove is looking pretty gold, if you ask us. Congrats to Brayan Rocchio on being named @SportsInfo_SIS
Defensive Player of the Month!” the Guardians said.
Glove is looking pretty gold, if you ask us.
Congrats to Brayan Rocchio on being named @SportsInfo_SIS Defensive Player of the Month!#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/beUSOWin0M
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) July 2, 2026
SIS is a highly respected organization in the analytics and data department. When it comes to evaluating defensive performance, they came up with the widely used Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) metric.
SIS gave their monthly award to three ballplayers in June: Tampa Bay Rays third baseman and former Guardians prospect Junior Caminero, Miami Marlins catcher Joe Mack, and Rocchio.
“This season his shortstop numbers weren’t great for the first couple of months, but they got a boost in June. His 7 Runs Saved at shortstop were one shy of the MLB lead (Mookie Betts had 8). Rocchio’s Defensive Runs Saved for the season went from -4 to 3, even as his offensive numbers took a hit after a hot start,” they wrote.
Rocchio will likely be flirting with that 100 wRC threshold all season, trying to sustain the offensive gains he made last year, but we do know that his defense is reliable and consistent. He is capable of making every play: in the hole, on the move, diving stops, and every throw there is in the book, too. He is slick, creative, and has impressive range, being capable of making plays like this one.
Or this one:
Brayan Rocchio gets the @CLEGuardians out of a jam with an UNREAL double play 🤯 pic.twitter.com/63fODZSEPQ
— MLB (@MLB) June 9, 2026
That’s where you see the entire Rocchio skill set: few shortstops have the range, awareness, and mental agility to complete that play, throw included.
Now that he’s respectable with the bat in addition to his incredible defense, Rocchio has become quite an asset for Cleveland. He entered Thursday’s game with 2.5 fWAR: his previous career-high was 1.1 in 2024.
Still young at 25, Rocchio keeps developing into quite a useful player for the Guardians. It’s nice to see the baseball universe praise his flawless defensive work. Cleveland baseball fans, however, are quite familiar with his glove work.
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