Defense, like pitching and batting, varies from year to year. Berkman was widely considered a terrible 1B in prior years, but the numbers indicate otherwise. The same for Tejada. They both had good years. Matsui was the opposite as he was one of the best 2B last year.

Oddly enough, Tejada appears to be worth keeping around for his defense in spite of his offense, not the other way around as we suspected would be the case at the beginning of the year. I personally don't think Tejada will be as bad offensively next year, but I don't think he'll be as good defensively either.

Defense was definitely one of this teams strengths and I could see that continuing next year as the only major change will be Ausmus, who will likely be replaced by solid defensive players.