Don’t get me wrong, I love that the Chicago Cubs made history on Sunday, when they had three gold glove winners for the first time in a season in franchise history. Fantastic and mostly deserved. However, if we bitch and complain about other bullshit results when it comes to awards, then I think it’s only fair to discuss how one of the worst rated outfielders in baseball ended up winning a gold glove.
Now, this isn’t meant to shit on Ian Happ. His 2023 Gold Glove isn’t without merit, as he ended the season with 12 outfield assists, which did lead all National League left fielders. Happ also posted 2 defensive runs saved, which was ranked second among the qualified left fielders. However, Happ also posted -7 outs above average, which ranked 32nd among 35 qualified left fielders according to Baseball Savant.
Even Cubs fans were surprised that Happ ended up being a finalist, but after winning the award in 2022, we can safely assume that he’s now in that cycle where he’s generally thought of as being good and if he’s in the final three, then he’s getting the benefit of the doubt from the voters. By the way, according to Rawlings’ voting criteria and process, “only the manager and six (6) coaches for each Major League Baseball team vote, for a total of seven (7) votes per team. Each person must sign the completed Ballot in order to be considered valid.”
Rawlings also have the following criteria for finalists.
- All infielders and outfielders must have played in the field for at least 698 total innings through his team’s 138th game: this equates to playing in the field for approximately 7.5 innings per game in approximately 67% of his team’s games by his team’s 138th game; this ensures that only full-time players are considered;
- All infielders and outfielders with at least 698 total innings played qualify at the specific position where he played the most innings (i.e. where his manager utilized him the most)
I do get that, but man, Arizona Diamondbacks player Lourdes Gurriel Jr. finished the season with 778 innings in left field and he was by far the best rated defender at the position with a National League best 14 defensive runs saved, while also recording 2 outs above average and had 8 outfield assists.
Happ won the voting over Eddie Rosario and David Peralta, from the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively. I understand that they want to shy away from giving the award to guys who don’t play most of the season, but even Nolan Jones from the Colorado Rockies deserved being a finalist over the three guys who were.
Nevertheless, congrats to Happ, who won his second straight Gold Glove along with Dansby Swanson, and to Nico Hoerner, who was named to his first Gold Glove win at second base. The Cubs entered 2023 expected to have one of, if not, the best middle infield in baseball and the pair of infielders lived up to those expectations.
