Overview
A putout is credited to the fielder who directly records an out: an outfielder catching a fly ball, a first baseman receiving a throw and touching the base, a fielder tagging a runner, or a catcher receiving a strikeout pitch. First basemen and catchers structurally accumulate the most putouts, making raw comparisons across positions misleading. In NPB, first basemen routinely exceed 1,000 putouts per season. Putouts combined with assists form total chances, against which errors are measured to calculate fielding percentage, the traditional baseline for defensive evaluation. While advanced metrics like UZR and DRS have gained prominence, putouts remain an important component of official scoring.