Toronto – The 2024 Rawlings Gold Glove Award finalists were announced on Tuesday morning, with winners set to be unveiled on ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” on Nov. 3 at 8:30 p.m. ET. Both leagues have three finalists at each position, including the utility spot, which was awarded for the first time in 2022.
To determine the winners at the nine standard positions, the 30 MLB managers and up to six coaches from each team vote from a pool of players in their league, excluding players from their own team. These votes comprise 75% of the selection total, with the SABR Defensive Index counting for the other 25%.
For the utility position, Rawlings collaborated with SABR to create a specialized defensive formula separate from the traditional selection process.
Here are the 2024 Gold Glove Award finalists:
AMERICAN LEAGUE
PITCHER
Griffin Canning, Angels
Seth Lugo, Royals
Cole Ragans, Royals
Lugo and Ragans combined to give the Royals one of the best rotations in the game in 2024, but they also fielded their position well. Canning did, too, while making a career-high 32 appearances (31 starts) for the Angels. The Halos right-hander is the only one of these three hurlers who has won a Gold Glove Award before, having done so in 2020.
CATCHER
Freddy Fermin, Royals
Cal Raleigh, Mariners
Jake Rogers, Tigers
For the fourth straight year, the AL will have a first-time Gold Glove Award winner behind the plate. On the strength of his excellent pitch-framing skills, Raleigh led AL catchers in fielding run value (+14) and tied Fermin for the league lead among backstops with 16 Defensive Runs Saved. Fermin excelled as a blocker and was especially valuable in controlling the running game, placing third with eight CS above average and posting the best caught-stealing rate (45%) among catchers who faced at least 30 steal attempts. Rogers, who also fared well in the blocking department and had strong pitch-framing metrics, finished with a fielding run value of +12 and 13 DRS.
FIRST BASE
Nathaniel Lowe, Rangers
Ryan Mountcastle, Orioles
Carlos Santana, Twins
Vying for his first Gold Glove Award at the age of 38, Santana led all first basemen with +14 Outs Above Average and tied Mountcastle for the AL lead at the position with 8 Defensive Runs Saved. Lowe, the reigning AL Gold Glove winner at first base, placed second in the AL behind Santana with +6 OAA.
SECOND BASE
Andrés Giménez, Guardians
Nicky Lopez, White Sox
Marcus Semien, Rangers
Giménez won the AL Gold Glove Award at second base in each of the past two seasons (as well as a Platinum Glove in 2023) and has a strong case to make it three in a row. He tied for the MLB lead with +20 Outs Above Average and led AL second basemen with 20 Defensive Runs Saved. Semien, though, wasn’t far behind Giménez in OAA (+19), and the two actually had identical +14 figures in Statcast’s fielding run value metric. Lopez saw time at both middle-infield spots for the White Sox in 2024 and produced +5 OAA, including +4 as a second baseman.
Courtesy: https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/news/