What position did Babe Ruth play with the Yankees? A closer look at the Bambino's career in New York

What position did Babe Ruth play with the Yankees? The slugger was one of the most unique baseball players of all time. Shohei Ohtani is called the modern-day Babe Ruth for good reason. Ruth, like the Los Angeles Angels superstar, could pitch and hit in the top tier of the majors.

When he wasn't a pitcher, Ruth played the outfield. He was primarily a left fielder during his time, though defense wasn't necessarily his strong suit. He's not in the Hall of Fame for playing outfield and he doesn't have a fun nickname for his defensive prowess.

The Great Bambino was one of the best hitters of all time. He has a career OPS+ of 206. For comparison, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge's historic 62-home run campaign in 2022 netted a 211 OPS+.

Ruth has a staggering 183.1 bWAR over his career as well. He was an incredible player who played outfield and pitched.

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Exploring Babe Ruth's defensive numbers during his time with the New York Yankees

Defensive metrics (the more valuable advanced analytics) don't date back far enough to tell fans how good Babe Ruth truly was defensively.

What position did Ruth play with the Yankees?

However, for his illustrious career with the Red Sox and Yankees, the Sultan of Swat had a .967 fielding percentage. He also recorded a total of 569 assists as a pitcher, outfielder, and briefly as a first baseman.

In the outfield, Ruth had 4,444 putouts, so he was very active in the field. Though these metrics don't capture the fullest picture, they do describe what Ruth's defense was like.