Denzel Clarke or Jacob Young: Who Had the Catch of the Year?

Denzel Clarke and Jacob Young have each made tremendous catches this season, but who will end up with catch of the year?

Jul 11, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Athletics outfielder Denzel Clarke (1) attempts to make a diving catch against the Toronto Blue Jays during the ninth inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images | Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images

Some of the best plays you'll ever see on a baseball field begin with a fielder not handling the ball cleanly, then making a tremendous recovery to record an out. That's what happened on Sunday in the Nationals-Mets game, when Jacob Young recorded an out after the ball popped out of his glove at the wall, then he kicked the ball back up to himself to complete the play.

JACOB YOUNG OH MY GOODNESS! pic.twitter.com/bHaSqV0d29

— MLB (@MLB) September 21, 2025

The play is tremendous and will be seen on highlight reels for years to come. Yet, the one pushback is that it's more in line with a blooper play that you'd see on the old VHS tapes of some of the wacky plays around baseball.

He said after the game that he tried to kick the ball once it popped out of his glove. "As a kid or as a person, you just never let the ball hit the ground. It was just reaction. Somehow, I kicked it right back to me. So I’ll give credit to my AAU soccer coach."

According to Statcast, that ball had a 92% hit probability and would have been a home run in 22 parks. Citi Field, where the game was being played, was not one of those ballparks.

Some have said that it's the catch of the year, but we have to disagree. That honor belongs to A's rookie Denzel Clarke, who made a few outstanding plays to choose from. We'll go with this one in Anaheim as the best of the bunch because it took him getting back to the ball, timing his leap, and then going halfway over the wall to haul a home run back.

UNREAL CATCH FROM DENZEL CLARKE 😱

PLAY OF THE YEAR 🔥

(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/yt8FFkPeZD

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 10, 2025

Again, both plays are remarkable, but when making a decision on which catch was better, you have to go with the one that executed the play they were trying to make. Young's was certainly more creative and showed a different set of skills, and he should also receive plenty of credit for him adjusting to the play that unfolded in front of him.

While Clarke's was one that you tend to practice a bit, going back on a ball and jumping at the wall, Young's was more of a reaction play that showed off his capability at his position. That said, there may not be another centerfielder in baseball that can just go make plays like Denzel Clarke.

The A's rookie outfielder played in all of 47 games this season and has been out since July 22, but he still ranks No. 12 in all of baseball in Outs Above Average with a +13, racking up more than just a single catch. For nearly a month he was routinely making highlight reel catches.

In less than one-third of a season he put up one of the best defensive seasons in 2025. When he gets a full season under his belt, he'll surely be collecting Gold Glove Awards.

The metrics on Clarke's catch are funny, because they have the ball that Nolan Schanuel hit as having just a .630 expected batting average, and said that it would have been a home run in just one ballpark (Wrigley Field), having traveled 392 feet.

Yet we can clearly see if go over the fence, so it should have been a home run in at least one more park. Instead, Clarke climbed the wall and brought it back, giving him the best catch of 2025.