Four Atlanta Braves among Gold Glove finalists for 2022
By Fred Owens
Atlanta Braves defense helped the team with the NL East, now four members of that defense are finalists for a 2022 Rawling Gold Glove award.
The Atlanta Braves found the names of three infielders and one starting pitcher when Rawlings Sporting Goods Company released their finalists for this year’s Gold Glove awards.
To qualify for a Gold Glove, players had to play a minimum number of innings at their position by September 11 (game 138).
- Pitchers must have played 138 innings
- Catchers must have caught 69 games
- Infielders and outfielders must have played in the field for at least 698 total innings.
- The number equals about 67% team’s games
- Infielders and outfielders who qualify at the position where they played the most often
The four Atlanta Braves’ finalists are:
- Max Fried – Fried won the last two Gold Gloves at his position
- Travis d’Arnaud
- Matt Olson
- Dansby Swanson
Determining a winner
Winners for each position are determined by a vote of the manager and up to six coaches from each team, but they may not vote for players on their team. These votes are worth about 75%of the final score, and the SABR Defensive Index (SDI) provides the final 25%.
"The SABR Defensive Index draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts, including data from MLBAM’s Statcast, Sports Info Solutions, and STATS Perform."
If you’re wondering why Michael Harris II isn’t on the list, his 3.1 SDI ranked fourth on the list released in August, behind Victor Robles (6.0), Trent Grisham (3.6), and Alek Thomas (3.5).
Harris did meet the required innings for consideration.
Utility players rarely qualify for a specific position. When they do qualify, their metrics aren’t good enough to earn an award. Rawlings and SABR worked together to add an award for the utility player in 2022.
"To determine the utility Award winners, Rawlings collaborated with SABR to create a specialized defensive formula separate from the traditional selection process for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award position winners. Utilizing the SABR formula and additional defensive statistics, Rawlings will select one utility winner from each League."