Four Atlanta Braves among Gold Glove finalists for 2022

Atlanta Braves defense helped the team with the NL East, now four members of that defense are finalists for a 2022 Rawling Gold Glove award.

The Atlanta Braves found the names of three infielders and one starting pitcher when Rawlings Sporting Goods Company released their finalists for this year’s Gold Glove awards.

To qualify for a Gold Glove, players had to play a minimum number of innings at their position by September 11 (game 138).

• Pitchers must have played 138 innings
• Catchers must have caught 69 games
• Infielders and outfielders must have played in the field for at least 698 total innings.
  • The number equals about 67% team’s games
• Infielders and outfielders who qualify at the position where they played the most often

The four Atlanta Braves’ finalists are:

• Max Fried – Fried won the last two Gold Gloves at his position
• Travis d’Arnaud
• Matt Olson
• Dansby Swanson

Determining a winner

Winners for each position are determined by a vote of the manager and up to six coaches from each team, but they may not vote for players on their team. These votes are worth about 75%of the final score, and the SABR Defensive Index (SDI) provides the final 25%.

The SABR Defensive Index draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts, including data from MLBAM’s Statcast, Sports Info Solutions, and STATS Perform.

If you’re wondering why Michael Harris II isn’t on the list, his 3.1 SDI ranked fourth on the list released in August, behind Victor Robles (6.0), Trent Grisham (3.6), and Alek Thomas (3.5).

Harris did meet the required innings for consideration.

Utility players rarely qualify for a specific position. When they do qualify, their metrics aren’t good enough to earn an award. Rawlings and SABR worked together to add an award for the utility player in 2022.

To determine the utility Award winners, Rawlings collaborated with SABR to create a specialized defensive formula separate from the traditional selection process for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award position winners. Utilizing the SABR formula and additional defensive statistics, Rawlings will select one utility winner from each League.

Atlanta Braves players will need to support of the league’s managers and coaches to win because none of them head SABR’s list at their position, so here’s a look at the competition.

Catcher

It’s no surprise that Realmuto leads the SABR list with a 6.5 SDI. The Phillies’ backstop is widely regarded as the best all-around catcher in the game. Offense isn’t a factor in SDI and isn’t supposed to affect voting, but there’s no way of ensuring voters won’t consider it.

I was a bit surprised to see Tomás Nido on the list. I knew Buck Showalter preferred him over McCann, but I thought that was based on the lesser of two bad offensive options.

However, Baseball Prospectus has Nido ahead of both d’Arnaud and Realmuto in that order. Fangraphs disagrees, putting Nido third and d’Arnaud second. SDI has TDA sandwiched between them in second.

I believe Realmuto will win the Gold Glove. His SDI is three times that of d’Arnaud, and his reputation will swing the voters who don’t look at those things.

First Base

I was surprised that the former first baseman for the Atlanta Braves didn’t make the cut against Matt Olson and Paul Goldschmidt, but the third spot goes to Christian Walker.

Fangraphs composite Defense stat favors Walker by a huge margin over Olson and Goldschmidt. He leads in Olson by 12 DRS, OAA, and 9 RAA and has his nose in front of Goldschmidt by a difference of 0.4 in UZR. Goldschmidt’s negative six OAA should end the discussion. SDI agrees with that order, putting Olson 9.3 behind in second and Goldschmidt a distant third with a  negative 0.4,

Notably, SDI has Rhys – how do I play this position? – Hoskins and his –6 OAA in second place, so I’m concerned with their formula because even Phillies fans don’t believe he’s good there. I digress.

On paper, this looks like the Diamondbacks’ first sacker will walk away with the Gold Glove. Yes, I meant to use the pun; no, I am not sorry. I don’t have any feel for how well he plays the position overall, but he’s always looked good when I was watching, so I’ll take Walker.