Each year, MLB recognizes defensive excellence by giving the Gold Glove Awards to a player of each position, both in the National and the American League.
The winners are determined by a voting process in which managers and coaches of each league participate, as well as a sabermetric component provided by the Society for American Baseball Research (25 percent of the vote).
The finalists at third base for the 2022 season, however, didn’t come without some controversy.
Nolan Arenado of the St. Louis Cardinals has won the award in the hot corner for the last nine years, and deservedly so.
However, San Diego Padres‘ Manny Machado is usually among the nominees.
He even has a couple of awards, in 2013 and 2015, but both during his days in the American League with the Baltimore Orioles.
Back to our season finalists, though.
Arenado is, naturally one of them.
Ke’Bryan Hayes of the Pittsburgh Pirates is another, and Ryan McMahon of the Colorado Rockies is the third one.
No Machado!
The Twitter universe is surprised about the Machado snub, including a famous MLB analyst.
“How in the world is #Padres 3B Manny Machado not a Gold Glove finalist? Absurd,” he tweeted.
How in the world is #Padres 3B Manny Machado not a Gold Glove finalist? Absurd. https://t.co/7gt6BOt7R8
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 20, 2022
Machado Wasn’t A Top Three Third Baseman In The NL This Year
In all fairness, Machado finished the season with a -3 Defensive Runs Saved, or DRS: it’s the first time in his career he finishes in the negatives.
He also had a career-best 8 Outs Above Average (OAA), though.
Arenado had 19 DRS and 15 OAA; Hayes was at 24 and 18; and McMahon at 11 and 10, respectively.
The main takeaway of this is that the three finalists have a deserved spot, and Machado wasn’t any better than any of them.
He wasn’t bad, of course, but may be starting to decline at third or had an off season compared to his lofty standards.
It can happen.
In fact, we might be about to witness a different winner at third base in the National League for the first time since 2012, as Hayes is in a better position to take home the award.
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