Awards season continued on Friday, as MLB announced the winners of the Platinum Glove Award in the NL and AL, the Team Gold Glove, and the Heart & Hustle Award.
The AL Platinum Glove honor went to Yankees’ outfielder Cody Bellinger, while the NL Platinum Glove honor went to Cubs’ outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. Before I say anything else, I’ll just editorialize with this: the fans having a vote in this award is very dumb.
Crow-Armstrong was certainly one of the top two of three defenders in the NL,
so I don’t think him winning the award is egregious. But Bellinger was nowhere near as deserving as some of the other names in the AL.
Bellinger finished fifth in defensive runs saved (20), tied for 16th in dWAR (1.7), 42nd in fielding run value (8), and 49th in range value (5). A few of the more deserving names includes the Red Sox’s Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela, as well as the Rays’ Taylor Walls, not to mention the Tigers’ Dillon Dingler, the Mariners’ Cole Young, or the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., who didn’t even win the Gold Glove at his position (he had to go head-to-head with Walls, who was arguably the best defensive player in all of baseball, leading the majors with 3.0 dWAR).
Crow-Armstrong finished near the top of many defensive categories, ranking ninth in defensive runs saved (16), seventh in dWAR (2.1), first in fielding run value (26), and first in range value (23).
The Team Gold Glove Awards went to the AL’s Toronto Blue Jays and the NL’s Chicago Cubs. Toronto, interestingly, had zero individual Gold Glove winners. However, they had finalists at five positions, including José Soriano (pitcher), Brandon Valenzuela (catcher), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (first base), Andrés Giménez (shortstop), and Nathan Lukes (right field). They finished at the top or near the top of several AL defensive ratings, including defensive runs saved (No. 6 overall, No. 3 in AL), defensive WAR (No. 2 overall, No. 1 in AL), and fielding run value (No. 2 overall, No. 1 in AL).
The Cubs were represented in the individual vote by third baseman Alex Bregman and Crow-Armstrong. They also had finalists in Dansby Swanson (shortstop), Ian Happ (left field), and Seiya Suzuki (right field). Chicago finished with the best defesne in baseball by many marks, including defensive runs saved, defensive WAR, outs above average, fielding percentage, and fielding run value. This marks the second consecutive Team Gold Glove honor for the Cubs.
The Heart & Hustle Award went to Royals’ shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., the third straight year Witt took home the award. The award, created by the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association in 2005, is voted on by alumni and active major league players and is presented annually to an “active player who demonstrates a passion for the game of baseball and best embodies the values, spirit, and traditions of the game.”
Witt becomes the first player to win the award three times, as he was previously tied with Craig Biggio as the only players to receive the award twice.
Every team puts forward a nominee, and the Brewers were represented by Sal Frelick, his second consecutive season as Milwaukee’s nominee.
