Major League Baseball won’t reveal MVP and Cy Young Award winners until next week, but it did hand out a slew of hardware Tuesday when the sport’s top defensive talents were honored with Gold Gloves.
Here’s a look at this year’s complete list of winners:
One of the biggest notable trends from this year’s voting is the number of San Francisco Giants who came away with wins, and catcher Buster Posey is among those notable triumphs.
Not only did Posey win his first career Gold Glove on Tuesday night, but he snapped Yadier Molina’s streak of eight consecutive wins behind the plate for the St. Louis Cardinals, according to ESPN Stats & Info’s Mark Simon. Posey also led all National League catchers in defensive runs saved (23), according to Simon.
Furthermore, the Giants boast three Gold Glove winners for the first time in 22 years. According to Simon, the Giants last touted that many fielding honors when Barry Bonds, Darren Lewis and Matt Williams all came away as victors.
Elsewhere in the infield, Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado stayed on his torrid pace and picked up his fourth straight Gold Glove to join some exclusive company, according to ESPN Stats & Info:
The Rockies provided a complete overview of Arenado‘s defensive accomplishments from the 2016 season:
According to FanGraphs, Arenado finished the year ranked third in UZR—which “puts a run value to defense, attempting to quantify how many runs a player saved or gave up through their fielding prowess (or lack thereof)”—among all National League third basemen.
Speaking of UZR, Francisco Lindor parlayed his AL-best mark of 20.8 among shortstops into his first Gold Glove.
MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian provided some context regarding Lindor‘s win:
One other American League winner worth highlighting is Boston Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts.
The 24-year-old posted an outrageous fielding percentage of .997, and his UZR clocked in second among all American League right fielders behind only Adam Eaton of the Chicago White Sox. Betts also recorded 14 outfield assists and 32 defensive runs saved, according to the Red Sox on Twitter.
“That kid is an unbelievable athlete,” David Ortiz said, according to ESPN.com’s Gordon Edes. “It’s a no-doubter he’s going be a superstar.”
While Gold Glove results aren’t perfect considering they’re subjective awards voted on by managers and coaching staffs, this year’s honorees represent the class of defensive excellence across baseball.
In other words, don’t be surprised if the same names continue to capture the prestigious hardware for years to come.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.
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