Gold Glove nominations continue to show Atlanta Braves defensive emphasis
Give credit to Atlanta Braves coach Ron Washington — his defensive drills clearly work.
Pitching and defense. That phrase has been a key mantra illustrating the success of the Atlanta Braves over the past 3 decades. Yesterday’s Gold Glove award nominations continue to reward that legacy.
A quick spin around the diamond shows quickly how much the Braves value defense: Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis, Ender Inciarte, and Adam Duvall already have Gold Gloves in their trophy cases.
In recent years, Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies have been nominated for these awards as “Top 3 finalists”.
This year extends that legacy: nominated for awards in 2020 are…
- Pitcher Max Fried
- Center Fielder Ronald Acuna Jr.
- Shortstop Dansby Swanson
Ozzie Albies seemed to have a great chance at a nomination as well, but there’s a technicality that excluded him, thanks to his wrist injury: a minimum requirement of 265 defensive innings played.
Alas, he fell less than 13 innings short of that mark — a game and a half — at 252.2. This amounts to less than half of the 60-game season (nominally 540 innings).
As such, it would be difficult to rank him above the nominated players in the NL at second base (Adam Frazier, Nico Hoerner, and Kolten Wong). Figure that Wong will win again as he did in 2019.
The 2020 Braves Nominees
Ronald Acuna Jr. is going to be difficult to assess for the centerfield award since he only spent 215 innings at that position. He still garnered 2 Defensive Runs Saved (Trent Grisham of the Padres led the NL with 7, plus a stout 8.3 total defensive rating by fangraphs).
While in right field, Acuna was credited with 2 more DRS in 161.2 innings, but recall that he also missed time in the field due to injury. As such, while it’s great to see him get recognition here, it would be a surprise if anyone other than Grisham wins here.
Max Fried shares the podium with Kyle Hendricks (Cubs) and Alec Mills (also the Cubs).
Fried had the occasion to lead the National League in runners picked off with 4 (tied with Tyler Anderson of the Giants)… compare that to the 5 he recorded in 2019… with triple the number of innings pitched in that year.
In fact, Fried’s pickoffs were the only ones the Atlanta Braves had this year, and that still ranked the Braves at 9th in the majors as a team.
Fried also led the majors in assists with 15 (committing just one error). Hendricks and Mills were right behind him with 13 and 12 assistsm respectively… Hendricks adding 7 putouts vs. 1 for Fried and 4 for Mills.
Fangraphs gives Fried 5 DRS, which leads the majors. No one else had more than 3; Hendricks and Mills both were at that number. Overall, Max has a real shot at winning this one.
Dansby Swanson had a solid year – period. He clearly rebounded both offensively and defensively, and he’s most certainly in a good position (no pun intended) to win his first Gold Glove.
Swanson led the majors in shortstop DRS with 10 (which ranks in a tie for 5th regardless of position). Among other metrics:
- 1st in shortstop innings (513.1)
- 3rd (tie) in Balls in his Zone
- 3rd in plays attempted
- 5th in his zone rating
Swanson could be hurt by fellow nominee Javier Baez‘ numbers, notably his propensity to make plays well out of his normal ‘zone’ (62 of them this year vs. 41 for Swanson). Baez has a higher overall defensive rating at fangraphs, too, though he trailed Swanson in most of the categories above.
The third shortstop nominee, Miguel Rojas of the Marlins, only had 309 innings at the shortstop position, though excelled in several respects while there. Hard to believe that he’d overtake either Baez or Swanson, though.
It should be a close contest between Baez and Swanson, but it could come down to a simple old-school stat: Dansby recorded only 2 errors this year as compared to eight for Baez.
Freddie Freeman was snubbed as a nominee this year… but that’s okay: he’s going to get a lot of other accolades during this off-season.
Next. An early look ahead. dark
As a team, however, the Atlanta Braves should add at least one more of these trophies — and possibly two — to their ever-growing list.