Just a few days in the past, Main League Baseball introduced its finalists for the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.
Right 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 defender. He’s not subpar. He’s properly, properly, properly under common. In truth, when it comes to Outs Above Common (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 properly) 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. Infantile Bambino was virtually 10 outs above common worse than the third-worst proper fielder in baseball, but in some way, he earned Gold Glove finalist recognition. HOW?!
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 recreation by way of your workforce’s first 138 video games. Whereas there’s a technique to look that data up and decide which gamers have been eligible in proper area after every workforce’s 138th recreation, I don’t receives a commission sufficient to spend the subsequent six hours of my life doing that for each particular person participant. Fortunately, there’s one other qualification that states: “All infielders and outfielders with at the least 698 whole innings performed qualify on the particular place the place he performed essentially the most innings (i.e. the place his supervisor utilized him essentially the most).”
In 2022, there have been 39 Nationwide 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).
Right here’s the place Soto ranks amongst each certified NL proper fielder in sure stats, based on FanGraphs:
- Outs Above Common: twelfth (-15)
- Defensive Runs Above Common: twelfth (-13)
- Final Zone Ranking per 150 innings: ninth (-2.7)
- Defensive Runs Saved: eighth (-2)
- Vary Runs: eighth (-1.3)
- ARM score: ninth (-2.4)
- Fielding Proportion: fourth (.990)
- Outfield Assists: T-ninth (3)
So, positive, 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 score by the way in which. It’s mainly a measure of how robust a participant’s arm is. I can’t actually let you know how Soto acquired a -2.4 score, however I can clarify why the quantity is so low. In accordance with BaseballSavant, amongst all proper fielders in MLB, Soto’s common throw (not together with informal throws that have been simply lazily tossed again in after a single) when attempting to throw out a runner was 85.8 miles per hour. That ranks him fortieth amongst 44 certified proper fielders. The toughest 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 in all probability explains why he performed essentially 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 essentially the most sure-handed, and he doesn’t have an excellent arm. He’d be the right designated hitter if he wasn’t so younger, spry, and keen about baseball.
I simply need 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 correct factor. I’ll forgive all the things if Soto doesn’t win the award. However, if by some unholy abomination, Soto walks away with the {hardware}, we must always abolish the Gold Glove altogether. That’s how strongly I really feel about this, and deep down, irrespective of how large a Soto fan you may be, you already know it’s true.
