John Hatfield has always ended up being one of the better defensive players of the 1870s in my games, and this one is no exception. So what do we know about the real-life version? Let's start with Nemec:
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John Hatfield was the older brother of major league infielder Gil Hatfield and related to the feuding West Virginia Hatfields. He reputedly had the greatest arm in the game in his heyday, but unhappily it is still not known with which arm he set a new throwing record in 1868 at Cincinnati and later used to break his own mark on October 15, 1872 at Brooklyn's Union Grounds. Hatfield played with the Queen City Red Stockings in 1868 but was suspected of being in cahoots with gamblers and was no longer with the club in 1869 when it became the first all-professional unit. In his six major league campaigns - all spent with the New York Mutuals - he served as a regular at three different positions: third base, second base and left field. In 1874, his final full season, Hatfield led all NA gardeners with an .874 fielding average but hit just .222, suggesting that the pitching by then had left him behind.
Field captain of the Mutuals for parts of both the 1872 and 1873 seasons, Hatfield remained connected with the team until it disbanded in 1876. Afterward he relocated to St. Louis, where for some years he ran a prosperous betting parlor with fellow bookmaker Dick Roche. Hatfield made a good living at the racetracks until the mid-1890s, when he hit a long losing streak and went broke. He subsequently regrouped and remained a bookmaker and member of the Turf Benevolent Association until his death from heart failure in 1909 at his Long Island City, New York home.
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One interesting note is that in the 1860s, a player with a cannon for an arm would tend to play third base or left field, not catcher, pitcher or right field. It makes sense - there weren't nearly as many left-handed hitters and a lot of guys got thrown out by outfielders on the bases, so left field would be a place for a great arm, and third base famously was further right than second base on the defensive spectrum than second in the 19th century.
Anyway, in my universe Hatfield has, strangely, followed basically the same path he did in real life. He spent all six years from 1871-76 with the Mutuals, and won pennants with them in 1871 and 1876. During that time, he won the Gold Glove in 1872, 1873 and 1874 and was the Silver Slugger in 1872 - all at second base. (OOTP can't model a defensive spectrum where third base is harder to play than second, so the game always puts Hatfield there.) He was an above-average hitter from 1871-75, but he slumped to .261 in 1876.
Following the disbanding of the Mutuals, he headed to St. Louis and is playing this year for the last-place Brown Stockings. He's still only age 30, so he may have some years left, and he's hitting .280 with excellent defense. It seems like his years as a star hitter may be done, but a Gold Glove-level middle infielder can last a long time.