ARLINGTON, Texas — A regular season shoehorned into two months inspired a revision of the usual Gold Glove Award that left one Cardinal to arrive as a surprise finalist and possible favorite, another to assert his tight grip on his title, and a third to vent on social media.
Denied a spot in the three finalists for the Gold Glove Award at catcher and thus shot a 10th Gold Glove award, Yadier Molina expressed his respect for the catcher who did and frustration for an “injustice†keeping him from tying Johnny Bench for the NL record.
“It is a shame,†Molina wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of him holding one of his nine Gold Glove awards at Busch Stadium. “At 38, I’m still the best. Ask every catcher in MLB, and they will tell you!!!â€
And that’s the wrinkle.
This year, the Gold Gloves weren’t determined by asking.
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They’re calculated by computer.
The use of advanced metrics to decide this year’s finest defensive players at each position elevated left fielder Tyler O’Neill as a favorite to win a Gold Glove at his position. They also illuminated the reputations of the Cardinals’ other two finalists, second baseman Kolten Wong and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Wong is the reigning winner at second, and Goldschmidt has won three previous, in Arizona. But it also eliminated the role reputation, such as Molina’s, carries with the usual electorate — managers and coaches.
Only Hall of Famers Pudge Rodriguez, a icon of Puerto Rico like Molina, and Bench have more Gold Glove awards than Molina, who is set to be a free agent within two weeks.
Molina last won a Gold Glove in 2018.
Rawlings, the ºüÀêÊÓƵ-based company that founded the Gold Glove awards in 1957, decided to shift to a metric system for this unusual season. That meant using an in-house statistical alloy that has been part of the voting since 2013 instead of canvassing managers and coaches for their votes. The stats used are a mix of MLBAM’s Statcast, Sports Information Solutions defensive analytics, and traditional box score stats, like errors.
Rawlings designed the statistics used with help from the Society of American Baseball Research, and that's where the composite metrics get their trademarked name: SABR Defensive Index (SDI).
The finalists this year are the top three at each position, and the top four in right field due to a tie.Â
The boost the SDI that would give O’Neill's chances was clear during the season as his advanced metrics in left were akin to a center fielder’s range and runs saved. The Cardinals led the majors with 33 Defensive Runs Saved this season, and nine of them came from left field. O’Neill topped all left fielders with nine Defensive Runs Saved, according to . He had 37 outs beyond his assigned zone, and a defensive rating of 3.9, using a scale similar to a Wins Above Replacement. The next-closest left fielder in the NL was Arizona’s David Peralta, at 2.3.
Peralta and Cincinnati’s Shogo Akiyama are the other finalists for the Gold Glove in left field. Goldschmidt, the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo, and San Francisco’s Brandon Belt are the finalists at first. Wong, Pittsburgh’s Adam Frazier and Cubs’ Nico Hoerner are the finalists at second, and Wong leads the NL in defensive rating/WAR (4.5) and assists (129) with only two errors.
Goldschmidt committed only one error at first base this season. According to , he had a minus-2.2 rating on defense.
Winners will be announced Nov. 3, Election Day.
The Cubs had seven finalists for Gold Gloves at six positions.
Of the 28 finalists named by Rawlings on Thursday, 14 were from the NL Central. That includes all three catchers — Pittsburgh’s Jacob Stallings, Cincinnati’s Tucker Barnhart, and the Cubs’ Willson Contreras. It is doubtful managers and coaches would rank Molina the fourth-best catch in the Cardinals’ five-team division. Stallings was superb for the Pirates. Despite missing time to recover from COVID-19, Molina had more innings caught than any other finalist but Stallings. His defensive rating, per , was 5.0. That ranked fifth in the NL, but behind all three finalists for the Gold Glove.
Through the years, defensive metrics for catchers have lagged behind the way the game measures other fielders. There have been advances when it comes to measuring pitch-framing, but other elements of the position player involved in every pitch are trickier to gauge. Molina offers an example of that because there is a reward when a catcher throws a runner out — but it's more nebulous and harder to measure when the catcher's presence means the runner doesn't try at all. Some teams don't try to steal bases against the Cardinals.
The defense WAR metric for catchers underwent some improvement and adjustment at and in recent years and Molina's saw an increase as a result.
According to , third baseman Nolan Arenado had the highest defensive rating of any player (9.3). Four of the next nine are catchers. Molina's 5.0 ranks 10th at all positions for qualified fielders, ahead of shortstop J.P. Crawford (4.9) and Wong (4.5), but behind the other catchers. If the list is expanded to all fielders who had 250 innings in the field or behind the plate, the leaderboard becomes stacked with catchers. There are 11 in top 20.
Molina is 17th, behind the finalists for the Gold Glove Award.
Molina’s Instagram post received applause from some teammates and former players, and Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena, the sensation of October, added this comment, in Spanish: “El Mejor.â€
The best.