Despite making the fifth-most errors as a team in all of Major League Baseball in 2022, two members of the Colorado Rockies infield have been nominated for the Rawlings’ Gold Glove Award.
On Thursday it announced that Brendan Rodgers is one of three finalists at second base while Ryan McMahon is a finalist at third base.
Rodgers, 26, is a first-time finalist for the award that recognizes the top defenders in the game in each league. Though he tied for the most errors (10) in the National League among second basemen, several of the defensive metrics consider him to be much better than that number.
Outs Above Average (OAA), created by Baseball Savant, has five second basemen ahead of Rodgers in its rankings.
However, both Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and SABR’s Defensive Index, a statistic used to help select the winners of the Gold Glove Award, consider Rodgers to be the best at his position in the Senior Circuit.
“It’s a completely different look. It’s a completely different throw,” Rodgers said earlier in the year about his newfound comfort defensively since moving from shortstop to second base. “Double play turns, everything’s pretty drastically different. So it was a little bit of a learning curve. I’m still obviously trying to get better and do what I can.”
For McMahon, this is second consecutive year as a finalist at the hot corner.
The 27-year-old led all of MLB in errors through the first several weeks of the season before finishing tied for the fourth-most in MLB and most at the position in the NL with 17.
Much like with Rodgers, the metrics like McMahon, who finished third in the league at his position in both DRS (10) and OAA (10).
Should either infielder win, it would mark the first Gold Glove Award for the franchise since Nolan Arenado in 2020. If both players won, McMahon would not only end Arenado’s streak of nine-straight, but it would be the first time two infielders took the honors for Colorado since DJ LeMahieu and Arenado won in 2018.
Three former Rockies were named on Thursday as well.
To no one’s surprise, Arenado is a finalist with the St. Louis Cardinals at third base for the 10th consecutive season. Tyler Anderson of the Los Angeles Dodgers was honored for NL Pitcher and LeMahieu is a finalist for the New York Yankees in the new category of Utility, created for players who have excelled defensively at multiple positions.
Diamond Details
Seven players have been awarded the Gold Glove for defensive excellence in franchise history.
Arenado has the most (8, 2013-2020) and is the only one to win the Platinum Glove Award as the best defender in the entire NL, which he won four times (2017-2020)
Hall of Famer Larry Walker is second with five Gold Gloves (1997-99, 2001-02) while Carlos González (2011 and 2013-14) is the only other outfielder to win the award.
Todd Helton (2001-02, 2004) and LeMahieu (2014, 2017-18) have been honored three times as the best defender at first base and second base, respectively.
Shortstops Neifi Pérez (2000) and Troy Tulowitzki (2010-11) have also been awarded the top honors.
