Enter putouts, assists and errors to get fielding percentage (FLD%) and total chances — how often a fielder makes the play.
Fielding percentage (FPCT or FLD%) is the share of a fielder's chances that they handled cleanly, written as a three-digit decimal such as .975. A chance is any putout, assist or error; fielding percentage is putouts plus assists divided by all three. It is the oldest and simplest fielding stat, and the only one most youth leagues track.
It measures sure-handedness, not range. A fielder who never reaches a hard ground ball is never charged an error on it; a fielder who gets to it and bobbles it is. So a high fielding percentage tells you a player makes the plays they get to, not how many plays they get to. That is worth remembering when a rangy young shortstop has a lower number than a cautious one.
Softball uses the same definition, and on the smaller diamond, with more balls in play, infielders rack up chances quickly.
Fielding Percentage = (Putouts + Assists) ÷ (Putouts + Assists + Errors)
Putouts (PO) go to the fielder who records the out: the first baseman catching the throw, the outfielder catching a fly, the catcher on a strikeout, the fielder who tags a runner. Assists (A) go to every fielder who touched the ball on the way to an out, most often the infielder who threw to first. Errors (E) are misplays that let a batter reach or a runner advance when, in the scorer's judgment, ordinary effort would have made the play.
Total chances is the sum of the three. This calculator shows it underneath the result, because a .950 on 20 chances and a .950 on 200 chances are very different pieces of evidence. Round to three decimals and drop the leading zero; a fielder with no errors is 1.000.
Your daughter has played shortstop for ten games. Adding up the scorebook: 18 putouts (mostly force outs at second and pop flies), 24 assists (ground balls thrown to first) and 3 errors.
Enter 18, 24 and 3 above and you will see .933 with 45 total chances. Note how much each play moves the number at this sample size: one more clean play would be .935, one more error would be .913.
Across the full 2025 MLB regular season, big-league teams fielded .986 as a group (calculated from official MLB Stats API team totals; 2024 was .985). Position matters enormously, though — first basemen and catchers handle mostly routine catches, while shortstops and third basemen field hard-hit balls and make long throws. Aggregating the 2025 regular starters at each position from the same source gives roughly:
| Position (MLB, 2025) | Fielding percentage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| All positions, league total | .986 | Every player, every chance |
| Catcher | roughly .994 | Mostly putouts on strikeouts and pop-ups |
| First base | roughly .993 | Catching throws is the bulk of the job |
| Second base / outfield | roughly .989–.990 | Shorter throws, routine flies |
| Shortstop | roughly .979 | Hardest infield position |
| Third base | roughly .973 | Hot corner: hard hops and long throws |
| Youth (8U–14U) | Varies widely — judge the trend, not the number | Scorer judgment and small samples dominate |
For youth players, fielding percentage is the most scorer-dependent stat there is. One league's volunteer scorer calls every bobble an error; another scores everything a hit. Samples are tiny — a shortstop may see 40 chances in a season — so one bad inning swings the number by 50 points. Ignore comparisons with the MLB table. Instead track chances and errors every game, watch whether the error rate falls over the season and from last year to this, and compare against players at the same position in the same league, who are scored by the same people.
Fielding percentage is a blunt stat, but it is the one your player's coach will look at, and tracking it is a good way to notice whether the hours of ground balls at practice are turning into cleaner hands in games. The free printable scorecard has room to mark putouts, assists and errors by position; log every game and the trend shows up within a few weeks.
MyBallPlayer records fielding chances by position for every game you log and charts fielding percentage alongside batting average, ERA and the rest, so you can see the whole player, not just the bat.
Add putouts and assists, then divide by putouts plus assists plus errors. Example: 18 putouts, 24 assists and 3 errors = 42 ÷ 45 = .933.
MLB teams fielded .986 as a league in 2025, with catchers and first basemen around .993–.994 and shortstops and third basemen roughly .973–.979. Youth numbers depend heavily on the scorer and on tiny samples, so judge the trend over a season and compare with players at the same position in the same league.
A physical misplay — a bobbled ground ball, a dropped catch, a wild throw — that lets a batter reach base or a runner advance when ordinary effort would have made the play. Mental mistakes and balls a fielder never reaches are not errors.
The putout goes to the fielder who records the out (catching the fly, taking the throw at first, applying the tag). An assist goes to any fielder who handled the ball on the way to that out, typically the one who threw it.
No. It only measures how cleanly a fielder handles the balls they reach. A player with great range may have a lower fielding percentage than a cautious one, because they attempt harder plays.
Yes. Putouts, assists and errors are scored the same way, and the formula is identical. Softball infielders on the smaller diamond tend to accumulate chances quickly, which helps the number settle down sooner.