Mauricio Dubon won another Gold Glove for the “utility position” yesterday. Good for him! It wasn’t a standout defensive year for him overall (+3 FRV in ~460 innings at shortstop; +1 FRV in 125 innings in center field, and +0 FRV in ~680 innings in the outfield corners), but there are also aren’t a lot of utility guys playing at a high defensive level either, so it was probably well-deserved.
But, it raised a different question for me: what even are the criteria to qualify for the utility Gold Glove,
and more importantly, what should they be? I remember I did the post when the finalists were announced, and Dubon’s two co-finalists didn’t even feel like they were really “utility guys” — Jared Triolo had ~260 innings at third, ~530 at shortstop, and fewer than 30 at other positions (first base, right field, along with a lone inning in center); Ildemaro Vargas did technically appear at six positions, including pitcher, but exceeded 35 innings at just first and second.
Should a utility player have to play both infield and outfield (and/or catcher), or are utility infielders acceptable? What should be the innings cutoffs for a position to “count?” It doesn’t look any of this is outright defined; further, the utility Gold Glove is the only one where instead of a 75/25 split of manager/coach vote versus data, it’s just entirely data-oriented (though with unclear criteria and cutoffs).
So, I’m just throwing it out there: if you were designing this from the ground up, how would you determine who even qualified to get one?
