Front Page: Jose Berrios Has Tough Road to First Gold Glove

[Cody Christie]

Major League Baseball and Rawlings announced the finalists in both leagues for the 2019 Gold Glove Awards. Three finalists at each position are named and the winner will be chosen through a vote by managers and coaches that has already been conducted. The winners will be announced on November 3 on ESPN.

 

Jose Berrios is the lone Twins finalist, but he might have a tough road to his first Gold Glove.The American League award for pitchers has been dominated by Dallas Keuchel since 2014 with him winning four of the last five years. Marcus Stroman took home the award back in 2017 to break-up the Keuchel three-year run. Both of those pitchers are in the National League now and this means there will be a first-time winner in the AL.

 

Berrios will be facing off against Chicago’s Lucas Giolito and Seattle’s Mike Leake. Both of these players rank better than him according to SABR’s Defensive Index. According to SABR, the SDI will be used to help select the winners for the seventh consecutive year and it accounts for approximately 25 percent of the selection process. In the last SDI update, Leake led all AL pitchers with a 2.2 SDI, while Giolito (1.0 SDI) came in tied for third. Out of qualifying pitchers, Berrios ranked second to last with a -1.5 SDI.

 

Ranking defenders can be a tough endeavor even in the Statcast era and ranking pitchers can be an even more challenging. In the AL, the league fielding percentage for pitchers was .945 and Berrios was well above that mark with a .969 fielding percentage. Giolito wasn’t charged with an error all season and finished with a perfect fielding percentage. Leake ended the year in the NL, but he accumulated a .966 fielding percentage in his AL appearances.

 

Another important defensive skill for pitchers is the ability to hold runners, but some of this stat is on the catcher too. In the AL, the league caught stealing percentage was 27% for the season. Giolito allowed three stolen bases and had three runners caught for a 50% caught stealing %. Leake had a slightly higher caught stealing percentage (56%) as he allowed five steals and four stolen bases. Berrios had the worst mark by far (8 CS%) as he allowed 12 steals and only had one caught steal.

 

Defensive runs saved is another common defensive metric. Again, Berrios ranks at the bottom when compared to the other two finalists. Leake was worth three defensive runs saved during his time in the AL and Giolito was also able to collect three defensive runs saved. Berrios was worth zero defensive runs saved, his lowest total since he had a negative defensive runs saved in 2017.

 

It seems like there are multiple metrics that put Giolito and Leake ahead of Berrios. Historically, that might not always matter when it comes to voting for the Gold Glove Awards. Brian Dozier was a surprise winner for the Twins back in 2017 when he beat out Ian Kinsler and Dustin Pedroia.

 

Could Berrios surprise and win in 2019? It might not be likely, but there’s always a chance.

 

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[mikelink45]

I just cannot get excited by Gold Gloves - some years there have been terrible travesties like Palmeiro https://www.sbnation.com/2011/12/2/2604446/rafael-palmeiro-1999-gold-glove "Palmeiro won the Gold Glove at first base in '99 despite starting 28 games at first base and 128 games at DH."

 

Pitchers are hard to choose and there has always been a laziness - Sure Kuechel won a number of awards in a row - Jim Kaat won 16 in a row and Greg Maddux 18.  

 

We have had many discussions on this site about defense and I do not trust any of the metrics.  I do not know if Berrios is the best, but it would be good if a Twin was awarded.  On the other hand I argue that Rosario is not the worst left fielder in the league, nor would I think Robbie Grossman could get a gold glove as the best.

 

These awards just give us something to write about. 

[brvama]

I second that mikelink45. Post season awards are nice, especially for the player, but I generally place them in a grab box full of plastic pliers.

[DocBauer]

Berrios is a fine fielding pitcher. He's probably as deserving as anyone to win the award. And I'm sure he would be proud to put it in his trophy case. But I agree with previous comments that in the scheme of things, and various over-sights we have all seen in the past, I'm just "meh" about the award any longer.

[hybridbear]

Why is he being considered with those metrics?