There haven’t been many established infielders who have successfully made the transition to a full-time outfield role in the Major Leagues.
But there are two prominent players who are doing just that right now: the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. and the Tigers’ Javier Báez have each gone from shortstop to the outfield with aplomb.
Tatis made the switch back in 2023, and all he did was win a Gold Glove Award in right field that year, not to mention a Platinum Glove Award as the league’s best overall defensive player.
Báez made the move this season out of necessity with Parker Meadows recovering from injury, and while it’s admittedly a small sample so far, he’s been very good in center field for Detroit.
What are the keys to making the move from infielder to outfielder? Well, it helps to be athletic — that’s something that Tatis and Báez have in common along with their ability to be among the most electric players in the game when they’re playing well.
But there’s something else, and, interestingly, it has everything to do with being an infielder.
“Definitely,” Tatis said. “I’m way quicker than other outfielders releasing the ball, turning, being able to throw [while] running. Those are things that you bring from the infield. And if you have a good arm, you can apply it in the outfield.”
On that last point, in particular, Tatis has the bona fides to back up the claim. His 94.9 mph average arm strength, per Statcast, was ranked sixth among all outfielders entering Saturday, and he owned the second-fastest throw from the outfield this season (102.9 mph).
Báez agreed that being an infielder can actually lend itself well in a move to the outfield.
“I think, for me, it’s the same as at shortstop with timing,” Báez said. “It’s the timing and the focus with the contact of the ball with every pitch. Just see it off the bat and get good reads off the bat.”
Báez has held his own in center, with +2 OAA entering Saturday (tied with two-time Gold Glove Award winner Brenton Doyle despite Báez playing more than 100 fewer innings at the position this season) and +3 DRS (tied with Byron Buxton despite Báez playing about half as many innings in center this season).
We’ve seen some tremendous plays over the past couple of seasons from Tatis in right, but despite only having been in center field for a few weeks, Báez already has a home run robbery to his name — he stole one from the Angels’ Jorge Soler in Anaheim on May 1.
It all looked very natural, just as when he robbed the Blue Jays’ Nathan Lukes of extra bases with a diving catch in the right-center-field gap on Friday night in Toronto, turning it into a double play.
While Báez had never played in the outfield as a professional when Tigers manager A.J. Hinch approached him about the idea, there was no hesitation on Báez’s part.
In fact, quite the contrary.
“I was a little excited, honestly,” Báez said. “I like to play outfield — I played outfield when I was a kid and I still shag in the outfield. That’s why A.J. came to me and mentioned it and I was really happy.”
Therein lies another key to being successful in a transition to the outfield: buy-in from the player.
“Being genuinely willing to go and do it,” said Tatis, whose brief foray into the outfield down the stretch in 2021 wasn’t as successful as when he fully embraced it in ’23. “And then if you have the talent, obviously it’s going to come out.”
That’s not to say it doesn’t take work, of course. Tatis added that “there’s no secret” when it comes to that, and that it takes “as many reps as you can get.”
As they patrol the outfield, both players have also been trying to recapture their prodigious offensive production from earlier in their careers.
Báez’s performance at the plate has been much more like the Báez of old, before he signed a six-year, $140 million contract with Detroit prior to the 2022 season. He’s hitting .300/.336/.500 with six home runs so far this season.
So far in 2025, Tatis also looks much more like the player he was before he served an 80-game suspension for violation of MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program in ’22. He owns a .305/.378/.551 slash line with 11 homers.
For his part, Tatis has been enjoying watching Báez in center field.
“Obviously I pay attention to Javy,” Tatis said. “Man, it’s really fun, especially seeing how he’s bouncing back, I’m really happy for him. He’s just gifted like that.”
Tatis and Báez are the latest players to successfully make the jump from the infield to the outfield, but there have been others. Here are some other prominent players in MLB history who made the transition, including current stars Jose Altuve and Oneil Cruz, each of whom moved to the outfield recently but are still working to find their footing at their new positions:
The all-time hit king entered the Major Leagues as a second baseman, playing at the keystone position from 1963-66 for the Reds. He then moved to the outfield in 1967 and played primarily the corner outfield positions for the next eight seasons before moving back to the infield in 1975.
Rose not only played in the outfield, but he even won a pair of Gold Glove Awards there in 1969 and ’70.
Yount played the first 11 seasons of his Hall of Fame career as a shortstop, winning the American League MVP Award and a Gold Glove Award at short in 1982, when he helped lead Milwaukee to the AL pennant. But in ’84, shoulder issues led to a position change, with Yount moving to center field.
Following a second shoulder surgery after the ’84 campaign, he became a star in center and continued to hit, winning a second MVP Award in ’89. In ’87, Yount made perhaps the most famous defensive play of his career — a diving catch in center to complete Juan Nieves’ no-hitter, the first no-hitter in Brewers history.
Murphy actually came up as a catcher when the Braves drafted him fifth overall out of high school in 1974. But he developed problems throwing from behind the plate and was moved to first base. He had throwing issues there, too, but Atlanta needed his powerful bat in the lineup and moved him to center field.
That’s where Murphy found his spot. He won five consecutive Gold Glove Awards as a center fielder from 1982-86, as well as back-to-back NL MVP Awards in 1982 and ’83.
Biggio also entered the Majors as a catcher, serving as a backstop for the Astros from 1988-91. He then made the unorthodox move from behind the plate to second base so that Houston could prolong his career and have his bat in the lineup every day.
Biggio became a four-time Gold Glove Award winner at second, all the while establishing himself as a hard-nosed star in the NL. In 2003, he was asked to move to center field after Houston acquired former NL MVP Jeff Kent. Biggio not only did so, he led the NL with a .997 fielding percentage that season. Before concluding his 20-year Hall of Fame career, he returned to second base from 2005-07.
Sheffield came up as a shortstop and played there during his first two MLB seasons with the Brewers from 1988-89. In ’89, he was moved to third base and played there over the next three seasons with Milwaukee and San Diego.
But after he was traded to the Marlins midway through the 1993 campaign, Sheffield’s poor defensive play at the hot corner prompted the club to move him to the outfield. He played the corner outfield positions during the rest of his career, one in which the feared right-handed slugger belted 509 home runs. Although he wasn’t a great defensive outfielder, Sheffield had his moments, including in Game 3 of the 1997 World Series, when he made a tremendous leaping catch to rob Jim Thome of extra bases.
Jones was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1990 Draft, and his power from both sides of the plate had him destined for stardom. The Hall of Fame slugger was a shortstop when he came up, but he saw some time at the corner outfield positions before becoming the Braves’ full-time third baseman in 1995.
That year, Jones helped lead Atlanta to a World Series title as a rookie. In 2002, he moved to left field in order to make room at third for Vinny Castilla, a former shortstop in Atlanta’s farm system who went on to become a star at the hot corner with the Rockies. Castilla returned to Colorado after two seasons and Atlanta installed Mark DeRosa at third. But DeRosa struggled there and Jones returned to the position in 2004.
The Yankees signed Soriano, a native of the Dominican Republic, out of Japan after he spent one season playing in Nippon Professional Baseball. He made his debut for New York in 1999 as an infielder. While he initially saw some time at shortstop and third base, he became the club’s primary second baseman in 2001, finishing third in AL Rookie of the Year balloting.
Soriano played second for the Yankees through the 2003 season, when he was traded to the Rangers in the deal that sent Alex Rodriguez to the Bronx. Soriano played second for Texas through the ’05 campaign before being traded to the Nationals. Washington asked him to move to left field and after initially balking at the request, he made the move.
Soriano remained an outfielder for the rest of his career, which included seven seasons with the Cubs and two more with the Yankees. He finished with 412 home runs and 289 steals and was a seven-time All-Star.
Altuve played second base in all 14 of his Major League seasons entering 2025. But that’s when he made the transition to left field. At first, there was speculation that he might make the move if third baseman Alex Bregman re-signed with Houston given that the club had already traded for another infielder — Isaac Paredes.
But even after Bregman signed with the Red Sox, Altuve continued to get reps in left and eventually became the primary left fielder for the Astros in order to enable more flexibility in the lineup with multiple other players being able to slot in at second.
There were certainly some early hiccups for Altuve moving to a new position in his age-35 campaign, but like Biggio did for Houston decades earlier, he’s shown his willingness to be flexible for the sake of the club.
Cruz is a Statcast darling, and for good reason. At 6-foot-7 with some of the most vicious bat speed, highest exit velocities and longest home runs at the plate, he is always must-see TV when he steps into the batter’s box. But defensively, he’s had his struggles at the position in the field where he made his MLB debut — shortstop.
Given his size and the nuances of the demanding position, the Pirates decided to move Cruz to center field, where they figured he would better be able to utilize his speed and incredible arm strength. While he’s shown flashes of what he could potentially do in the outfield, he’s had difficulty in general, entering play Saturday with -7 DRS in center.
MLB.com Padres beat reporter AJ Cassavell contributed to this story.
