Defensive Runs Saved grades a fielder against an average player at his position, in runs. A +15 season means roughly fifteen runs prevented that an average defender would have allowed.

It is built from batted-ball data and play-by-play video review, and it covers things range-only metrics miss — outfield arms, double-play turns, bunt defense. It also swings hard from season to season, and it routinely disagrees with Outs Above Average about the same player in the same year.

That disagreement is the reason two versions of WAR can differ by more than a win on one player: they use different defensive models. NUT avoids the problem by not modelling defense at all. Read DRS beside NUT when you need the glove; do not expect NUT to contain it.

What is a good DRS?

DRS is deliberately outside NUT. Defensive models disagree with each other by wide margins, and NUT stays a hitting-and-pitching number so it never inherits that disagreement.

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