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The Rawlings Company revealed the “finalists” for Gold Glove Awards Thursday.
Really, these aren’t “finalists” — that would imply another vote. The voting’s already been done; those announced Thursday are simply the three top vote-getters at all the positions, with the winners to be announced at a later date.
Here are the Cubs “finalists”:
#Rawlings #GoldGlove Award Finalists – NL 1B – @reds Joey Votto, @braves @FreddieFreeman5, @cubs @arizzo44 pic.twitter.com/lhfJfcA5Gz
— Rawlings Sports (@RawlingsSports) October 25, 2018
My guess is that Freddie Freeman wins this one, although Anthony Rizzo (2016) and Joey Votto (2011) are previous winners.
#Rawlings #GoldGlove Award Finalists – NL 2B – @rockies @DJLeMahieu, @cardinals @KoltenWong, @cubs @javy23baez pic.twitter.com/WPWhMICu4V
— Rawlings Sports (@RawlingsSports) October 25, 2018
Javier Baez started 75 games at second base in 2018 and 52 games at shortstop. It’s good to see that the voters recognized Javy even though he split his time among multiple positions.
Here are the right field nominees:
#RawlingsGoldGlove Award Finalists – NL RF – @dbacks @jonjayU, @cubs Jason Heyward, @braves Nick Markakis pic.twitter.com/NHYX3WbMPg
— Rawlings Sports (@RawlingsSports) October 25, 2018
Jason Heyward is a five-time Gold Glove winner, including in both his Cubs seasons in 2016 and 2017. He didn’t seem to have quite as good a year in right field this year, but he could very well win again.
Oh, and Rawlings — Twitter isn’t a TV show, you could have easily posted all of these tweets at the same time instead of spreading them out over five-minute intervals for 90 minutes! You can find all the nominees here.
Congrats to Javy and Anthony for getting to the top three in Gold Glove voting. The SABR Defensive Index is one of the criteria used in determining these awards; the winners will be announced in early November.