Last year is the first season Fowler outperformed Gardner. Buoyed by a huge uptick in defensive numbers that it seems most believe are due to Wrigley/positioning. I'm guessing Fowler would outperform Gardner in a lot of previous years if he was playing mostly LF like Gardner has almost every year of his career. 2013 is the only year Gardner has logged more innings in CF than LF in his career. Plus Gardner is entering his mid-30's and has a skillset that relies on his speed, which isn't getting any faster. His two big WAR seasons, 2010 and 2011, were the only seasons he stole 40+ bases and which were, coincidentally, the two best defensive seasons of his career. Ever since he's been averaging 22 bags a season since 2013 and his defense has taken some pretty big steps back over that time span. He wasn't even perceived as a positive fielder by UZR standards (flawed as it may be) in LF this past season. Gardner is fading, IMO. If Fowler's crowd sourced estimate is accurate, he'd make a couple million more than Gardner. Gardner's current contract: Fowler's crowdsourced estimate: I'd rather pay for Fowler's early 30's than Gardner's mid-30's. And if playing in Wrigley and being positioned by Maddon is what helped him be more successful this year, why would that be a knock against bringing Fowler back? All that said, Heyward is the answer.