Oops! The Gold Gloves commit an error
Four Royals are nominated for defensive excellence. But the omission of Nicky Lopez at shortstop raises some questions.
It’s officially defensive award season.
On Thursday, the finalists for the Rawling’s Gold Glove awards were announced. Those shortlists were preceded by the actual hardware awarded by The Fielding Bible and their defensive players of the year.
It isn’t good to hold these feelings in, so let’s start with the outrage.
Nicky Lopez is not a finalist for the Gold Glove at shortstop. The top three in the AL are Carlos Correa, J.P. Crawford and Andrelton Simmons.
Having watched Lopez patrol the shortstop position all summer, it’s a surprise he wasn’t at least a finalist. There are a plethora of fantastic defenders at the position, many with an award-winning pedigree that’s difficult to overcome in these types of awards, so he was always going to be a long shot to win the hardware. Still, it’s a bit of a snub that he’s not shortlisted for the honor. According to Baseball Savant, Lopez led all fielders in 2021 with 25 outs above average. Take a moment to read the previous sentence again. He didn’t lead shortstops, or infielders…He led all defenders in OAA. The second closest was Francisco Lindor with 20.
He turned 60 percent of his double play opportunities, which compares favorably to the three shortstops who are finalists.
Goodness, how I love that gif. Smooth, right?
It would’ve been nice for Lopez to have been in the top three at the position. In the aftermath of the 2021 season, I think two things stand out from those of us who dedicated far too many hours following this team. One, the power barrage and all-around stellar offensive season from Salvador Perez. And two, the emergence of Nicky Lopez as a premium shortstop in the league. I’ve written this a million times and will probably continue to do so for quite some time: The fact he was a spring training cut and became a producer on offense while playing exceptional defense at a position he hadn’t played with any kind of regularity as a professional, was nothing short of amazing. Awards are nice because they’re a validation from, in this case, managers and coaches from rival clubs. But we know what we saw from Lopez in 2021. It was a complete season and a joy to watch. The lack of notoriety doesn’t change that at all.
Fine, with the grumble out of the way, let’s look at the finalists from the Royals.
Catcher - Martín Maldonado, Sean Murphy, Salvador Perez
The Gold Gloves are kind of a legacy award. Win one, and you’re almost a lock to pick up a few more. Yes, they’ve added a sabermetric component to deciding the winner, but the award is still heavily skewed by votes from managers and coaches. That, along with a stellar defensive reputation behind the plate, all works in Perez’s favor. Never mind that Perez fares incredibly poorly in pitch framing, managers and coaches will tell you that how he calls a game and handles a staff is much more important. I may disagree (aren’t they all important?) but that’s neither here nor there.
Here are the cold, hard facts in favor of Perez: He caught over 1,000 innings and allowed just one passed ball. He was charged with two errors all season, both coming on throws. About those throws…He gunned down 18 of 41 would-be base stealers. That’s a 44 percent caught-stealing rate, the best among regular catchers. The next closest was Maldonado at 40 percent.
In 2021, Royals pitchers threw 1,052 pitches in the dirt. That was 4.3 percent of all pitches delivered. Both the raw number and percentage lead the majors. Perez was behind the plate for 720 of those pitches. The man was straight-up abused by this pitching staff. The next closest catcher was Jacob Stallings in Pittsburgh with 670 pitches in the dirt, followed by Christian Vázquez with 589 pitches in the dirt. Chew on that for a moment…The difference between first and third in handling pitches in the dirt was a whopping 131 pitches. Again Perez was abused.
Still, being a squatting target for sliders that travel 58 feet doesn’t win a Gold Glove. Yes, Perez did lead the majors with a not-so-nice 69 passed balls. But…waves hands frantically…look at all the balls in the dirt! It’s a minor miracle that it wasn’t higher.
There was also this play to win a game in April.
No, the advanced metrics do not care for Perez’s defense, but I’ve long maintained that the metrics aren’t that great of a way to measure the catcher and first base positions as they’re so unique defensively from the other six fielding roles. (I’m not counting pitchers here.) Still, Baseball Savant puts the run value of Perez’s framing in 2021 at a whopping -19, nine worse than his closest peer. Among the other finalists, Murphy was worth eight runs and Maldonado was good for a single run. The data has Perez getting more calls on the high strike and the edges, but not faring as well on low pitches or offerings on the corners.
Advanced metrics aside, the voters will use the eye test and reputation. Oh, and those times he literally won games with his defense. And the fact the SABR Defensive Index component of the award for catcher takes blocks and caught stealing into account…Perez should be a lock for his sixth Gold Glove award.
Second base - David Fletcher, Whit Merrifield, Marcus Semien
After watching the first month of the season, there was no way I would’ve guessed that Whit Merrifield would be a finalist for the Gold Glove award at second base.
It was around the All-Star break where Merrifield explained that, after a winter of preparing to play the outfield, he explained to MLB.com’s Anne Rogers the shift back to the infield wasn’t an especially easy adjustment.
“It was almost a matter of retraining myself to get back to that infield, short-arm motion I’ve had for awhile. It’s much easier to go from the infield to the outfield than it is outfield to infield. When I committed so much time getting ready for the outfield, it takes a little time to get back to being a high-level defender on the infield.”
So about that “high-level defender” stuff…
Or this…
Merrifield shook off that first wobbly defensive month and emerged as a supreme defender at the keystone. He led all second basemen with 14 Defensive Runs Saved and narrowly edged Semien for the Fielding Bible award by three points. (Fletcher and Semien tied for second with +11 DRS.) Merrifield did a little better ranging to his right than to his left, but was still above average no matter the direction he was moving.
Fangraphs grades Merrifield at 8.3 defensive runs, just behind Semien, who had played only 236 innings at second in his career prior to 2021, at 8.5.
All three finalists logged over 1,200 innings at the position, but Merrifield handily led in assists and putouts. He was charged with eight errors (the same total as Semien and two more than Fletcher.) The SABR Defensive Index accounts for the ability of middle infielders to turn double plays. Merrifield turned 65 percent of his double play opportunities while Semien was at 64 percent and Fletcher was at 60 percent double play opportunities turned.
I think this one is close between Merrifield and Semien. Semien, who delivered a season that will garner some MVP votes for Toronto, may have enough good team helium to capture the award. Either one would be a deserving recipient.
Left field - Randy Arozarena, Andrew Benintendi, Lourdes Gurriel, Jr.
This one was kind of a surprise? I pose that as a question because given how Benintendi progressed in the defensive metrics as the year progressed, maybe it isn’t that much of a shocker that he’s a finalist. While Alex Gordon had a flair for the spectacular and backed up the disregard for his body when it came to both the grass and the wall with a fearsome arm, Benintendi is a much more low-key defender. Steady would be a word I would use to describe Benintendi’s glovework.
Benintendi led the league in chances and putouts. His six assists were second to Gurriel, Jr. who lapped the field with 12.
Benintendi was charged with three errors all year, one fewer than each of his fellow nominees. His +7 DRS was tied with Arozarena for best in the AL, one more than Gurriel, Jr. How about this table from The Fielding Bible:
Gurriel, Jr. takes more chances so he makes more Great Fielding Plays than any other left fielder. But he also makes more Defensive Miscues, and those costs his team. While he had more outfield assists, he only rated two Kills more than Benintendi. And Benintendi was the only fielder of the three with a favorable ratio of GFP:DM. Benintendi finished second in the Fielding Bible awards to Tyler O’Neil of the Cardinals.
Gordon won the last four AL Gold Gloves in left. It would be nice to keep it in Kansas City. I think Benintendi has a solid chance, but the flair of Gurriel, Jr. could tip the voting in his favor.
Center field - Kevin Kiermaier, Myles Straw, Michael A. Taylor
The finalists rank second through fourth in the AL in chances and putouts. Taylor recorded an MLB-best 11 assists from center, Straw had six and Kiermaier only had one.
According to Baseball Savant each of the three candidates had three “5 star” plays in center field. (A “5 star” play has a catch probability of less than 25 percent.) Taylor had nine “4 star” plays (a catch probability between 50 and 26 percent) compared to five each for Kiermaier and Straw.
Kiermaier famously beat out Lorenzo Cain for AL Gold Gloves back when Cain was at the top of his game patrolling center field. He’s won three of these in his career, the most recent coming in 2019.
However, Taylor won The Fielding Bible award, edging Harrison Bader by a single point. He was first or second on 14 of the 17 ballots. I think he’s a lock for the AL Gold Glove.
The Gold Glove award winners will be announced on ESPN on November 7 at 7:30 CDT.
As noted in a couple of spaces above, Merrifield and Taylor both won their first ever Fielding Bible awards, announced on Thursday. Readers (and subscribers!) know that I’m a big fan of the Fielding Bible and their defensive metrics. No advanced numbers on the defensive side of the field are perfect, but they seem to make the most sense to me.
When it comes to the voting, I really dig their transparency. They list their voters and—for the most part–their ballots, which are based on a ranking system from one to ten. The votes for Merrifield and Taylor were two of the three closest positional ballots this year.
Merrifield was listed first or second on 12 of the 17 ballots. Chris Dial, who rated Ozzie Albies as the top defender at second, had Merrifield at eight on his ballot. As mentioned, Taylor was first or second on 14 out of 17 ballots cast. He was third on two others and inexplicably omitted from Moses Massena’s ballot. He rated Bader first and Kiké Hernandez second. It would’ve been wild if one of those anomalous votes cost Merrifield or Taylor the award. Thankfully, we can save our ire for the Lopez Gold Glove snub.
Lopez and Perez both finished 12th in their position in the Fielding Bible awards.