A couple of days in the past, Major League Baseball introduced its finalists for the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.
Here we see a couple of of the names we’d anticipate — Nolan Arenado, Matt Chapman, Sean Murphy, Mookie Betts, Matt Olson, Carlos Correa. They’re all nice defenders worthy of recognition. Then, there’s Juan Soto.
The Padres outfielder isn’t a superb defender. He’s not subpar. He’s nicely, nicely, nicely under common. In truth, when it comes to Outs Above Average (OAA), Soto totaled -15 OAA in 2022, the worst mark of his profession. Of the 38 certified proper fielders (some are listed as heart fielders, however performed appreciable time in proper as nicely) in MLB, Soto completed with the worst OAA by 5 runs. Philadelphia’s Nicholas Castellanos recorded a -10 OAA this yr. After him, it’s Ronald Acuña Jr., who posted -6. Childish Bambino was virtually 10 outs above common worse than the third-worst proper fielder in baseball, but one way or the other, he earned Gold Glove finalist recognition. HOW?!
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According to the Rawlings web site, sure {qualifications} have to be met to ensure that a participant to qualify for a Gold Glove. For infielders and outfielders, the necessities contain enjoying about 7.5 innings per sport via your staff’s first 138 video games. While there’s a option to look that data up and decide which gamers had been eligible in proper discipline after every staff’s 138th sport, I don’t receives a commission sufficient to spend the following six hours of my life doing that for each particular person participant. Thankfully, there’s one other qualification that states: “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).”
In 2022, there have been 39 National League outfielders who performed sufficient innings to qualify for a Gold Glove. Of these 39, 12 of them labored primarily as proper fielders (Soto, Mookie Betts, Randal Grichuk, Hunter Renfroe, Nick Castellanos, Starling Marte, Daulton Varsho, Seiya Suzuki, Acuña, Luis Gonzalez, Lars Nootbaar, and Avisail Garcia).
Here’s the place Soto ranks amongst each certified NL proper fielder in sure stats, in accordance with FanGraphs:
- Outs Above Average: twelfth (-15)
- Defensive Runs Above Average: twelfth (-13)
- Ultimate Zone Rating per 150 innings: ninth (-2.7)
- Defensive Runs Saved: eighth (-2)
- Range Runs: eighth (-1.3)
- ARM ranking: ninth (-2.4)
- Fielding Percentage: fourth (.990)
- Outfield Assists: T-ninth (3)
So, certain, when it comes to pure fielding proportion, Soto was alright, however that’s actually the one class the place Soto was above common amongst certified NL proper fielders.
I really feel I ought to clarify the ARM ranking by the way in which. It’s mainly a measure of how sturdy a participant’s arm is. I can’t actually inform you how Soto received a -2.4 ranking, however I can clarify why the quantity is so low. According to BaseballSavant, amongst all proper fielders in MLB, Soto’s common throw (not together with informal throws that had been simply lazily tossed again in after a single) when making an attempt to throw out a runner was 85.8 miles per hour. That ranks him fortieth amongst 44 certified proper fielders. The hardest Soto threw a ball from the outfield this season was 93.2 miles per hour. That ties him with Houston’s Kyle Tucker for Thirty fifth-best. The low velocity on Soto’s throws most likely explains why he performed probably the most innings of any certified NL proper fielder, but nonetheless had the fewest outfield assists.
Soto isn’t quick. He doesn’t have vary. He isn’t probably the most sure-handed, and he doesn’t have an amazing arm. He’d be the proper designated hitter if he wasn’t so younger, spry, and enthusiastic about baseball.
I simply wish to be clear. This isn’t me ripping a brand new one on Soto. He’s legitimately my favourite participant in baseball. That stated, he doesn’t need to be named a Gold Glove finalist, and I’ll be damned if he outright wins the award. This could be a travesty on par with the Rafael Palmeiro catastrophe of 1999 or any of Derek Jeter’s Gold Glove Awards. The MLB managers and coaches can nonetheless do the suitable factor. I’ll forgive every thing if Soto doesn’t win the award. But, if by some unholy abomination, Soto walks away with the {hardware}, we should always abolish the Gold Glove altogether. That’s how strongly I really feel about this, and deep down, regardless of how huge a Soto fan you is likely to be, you understand it’s true.