Boston Red Sox Memories: Top Five Mookie Betts moments

Amazing throw in Tampa Bay

Betts has provided plenty of production with his bat but his stellar defense in right field is equally as valuable. He’s piled up a collection of Gold Gloves for a reason and the cannon attached to his arm is one of them.

We saw that arm on display last September against the Tampa Bay Rays with Boston trailing by two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Hector Velazquez allowed a lead-off double to Ji-Man Choi, putting the threat of another run in scoring position.

Avisail Garcia followed by roping a double down the right field line to allow Choi to trot home easily. Garcia assumed he had the speed to stretch his hit into a triple but he learned the hard way not to test the arm of baseball’s best right fielder. Betts fired a laser that traveled 305 feet in the air all the way to third base. Rafael Devers swooped down to tag a sliding Garcia at third base for the out.

He surprised himself with that throw, later saying it was the best of his career.

Betts finished the 2019 season tied for third among AL outfielders with 10 assists. He would probably have more if plays like this didn’t serve as a warning not to test his arm.

FanGraphs has a metric called outfield arm runs (ARM) that measures an outfielder’s ability to throw out runners and hold them from advancing. Since Betts entered the league in 2014, his 23.6 ARM leads major league outfielders.

Watching Betts prevent runners from scoring can be as exciting as watching him score runs himself. This amazing throw is one of many examples of how Betts can impact the game in the field.