The term ‘finalist’ is wrong…they are one of the top three vote getters at their positions.
Ernie Clement along with Jose Ramriez and Maikel Garcia are the top three for the Gold Glove at third base.
Andres
Gimenez along with Marcus Semien and Luis Rengifo are the top three at second base.
Vladimir Guerrero along with fellow Jay Ty France and Carlos Santana are the top three at first base.
Alejandro Kirk, Carlos Narvaez and Dillon Dingler are the top three at catchers.
Clement is also in the top three for utility player, with Mauricio Dubon and Daniel Schneemann.
Clement only played 89 games at third, starting 66 so I’m surprised that they have him among the third basemen. He is also top three at Utility player. That one I think he should win.
And Gimenez, due to injuries, only played 87 games at second, starting 82. He also played 15 at short, so his chances of winning must be slim.
Vlad played 133 games at first, starting 130. He was second worst in the AL in errors at first with nine, but then errors don’t tell the story. He was fifth in the AL in assists and fifth in double plays. Outs Above Average has him at a -2, which would put him more or less middle of the league for first baseman. France leads AL first baseman with a +10 Outs Above Average at first base, best in the AL.
I like watching Vlad play, I think he makes some plays no other first baseman could or would, but I don’t see him as a Gold Glove first baseman
I love Kirk’s defense. He did seem to forget how to throw base stealers out around the middle of the season. He finished the season throwing out 19.8%, below the league average of 21.5. But he’s near the top of the league in framing (a stat that will mean less next year) and he’s great at blocking pitching in the dirt.
Pitchers had a better ERA when throwing to Tyler Heineman (3.54) than when throwing to Kirk (4.34) this year. I don’t know if that was due to who Tyler was catching, perhaps he caught more of the better starters, or if it is a sample size issue. Tyler caught 424 innings, but it might suggest that Heineman is the better defensive catcher. I’m not a massive fan of reading too much into that stat; there is a fair bit of ‘noise’ in it. Kirk, of course, caught when Tyler was on the mound. That didn’t help his numbers.
The complete listing of finalists:
And NL:
