It’s a World Series travel day, but it doesn’t mean that the Atlanta Braves haven’t made news.
Once the World Series ends and our Atlanta Braves finally put down their equipment for the year, the annual MLB awards will start rolling out and this begins with the Gold Glove announcements.
Before that happens, though, Rawlings has opted to extend the process a bit with a preview: a set of three “finalists” for each position in each league.
Those finalists were announced this afternoon, and four of our Atlanta Braves are featured among them:
At First Base
Freddie Freeman has established himself as a perennial contender for this award, and indeed the reigning MVP has the Gold trophy on his shelf from 2018 to prove it.
Getting a second award this season He is up against a 3-time winner (last time: 2017) in Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals and Max Muncy of the Dodgers.
If you believe in the fielding metrics, then… perhaps you should stop reading now, for they have seldom been kind to Freddie Freeman.
Fangraphs’ defensive summaries place Muncy and Goldschmidt 1-2 in their list and 2-1 in terms of defensive runs saved. Freeman is well back in both of those categories.
FWIW, the good folks over at Fielding Bible took the occasion of today to announce their awards, which honor a single player per position across all of MLB… and Goldschmidt took the honors for 1st base.
At Second Base
Ozzie Albies had a sparkling year at second as part of the Braves’ solid infield defense all around, and he’s nominated for the Gold Glove again this year.
He’s up against a Cardinal and a former Cardinal: Tommy Edman and Kolten Wong (Brewers), respectively.
As things stand in the National League now, Albies pretty much has no shot at this while Wong is still playing. That said, some voters might be swayed a bit by the fact that Wong only played in 116 games this season. Albies appeared in 156.
That said, players have won the Gold Glove with a lot fewer innings than Wong, so the back-to-back winner will likely still prevail for 2021.
Maybe that swayed a few, though: the Fielding Bible winner at second base was actually KC’s Whit Merrifield.
On the Mound
The defending champ here is an Atlanta Brave, and Max Fried looks to defend his crown against Zach Davies (Cubs) and Zack Wheeler (Phillies).
His chances might be best among three Braves named today, though curiously, it was Marcus Stroman taking the opportunity today to tweet out multiple highlights of his own fielding prowess… despite the fact that he did not receive a nomination this year.
The Fielding Bible? They chose to go in the direction of the American League, and legendary former Brave Dallas Keuchel got the nod there.
In Right Field
Adam Duvall gets some love from the Rawlings voters, named as a finalist along with Mookie Betts and Mike Yastrzemski.
For this award, it’s hard to imagine anyone winning other than Betts since he already has a streak of five in a row going… and because Ronald Acuna Jr. couldn’t play for most of the year.
This isn’t Duvall’s first nomination, but he’s truly been up against some stiff competition. It’s often difficult to break through against someone like Mookie.
Then again, the Fielding Bible went with Aaron Judge.
It’s great to see multiple members of the Atlanta Braves making these charts… it underscores something that’s been a hallmark of recent Braves’ clubs: pitching and defense.
There may still be some work to do, though, as Max Fried could end up being the lone winner again this year. We’ll find out in a couple of weeks.