Platinum Glove Award Predictions

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I’d like to preface this by saying that Ke’Bryan Hayes deserved the NL Gold Glove award at third base over Nolan Arenado.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at the platinum glove. For those who don’t know, the platinum glove is the fan-voted award to honor the season’s best fielder. The candidates come from the gold glove award winners list. I have my qualms with the list, but my qualms mean nothing here. Let’s get into it:

NL

Nolan Arenado
Trent Grisham
Brendan Rodgers
Dansby Swanson

I’d like to give a pre-emptive and resigned congratulations to Nolan Arenado for his *checks notes* 6th straight Platinum Glove award! I don’t think the man even cares about these kinds of accolades anymore; I’d bet that he also thought Ke’Bryan Hayes would win Gold Glove over him anyways.

As negative as I sound about Arenado’s consistent presence in the Gold Glove list, he has had one hell of a season. Arenado is top 7 in OAA and 6th in DRS while having the lead over Ke’Bryan Hayes in UZR. I’d actually like to see Arenado pick up this Platinum Glove award. Voter fatigue is a patently stupid concept that destroys the mysticism of some of the sport’s greatest players. Let Arenado put himself in the record books; it’s good for the game.

If voter fatigue does set in, there is certainly a series of worthy NL Platinum Glove candidates behind Arenado. Trent Grisham shares the lead in outfield directional OAA with the snubbed Daulton Varsho. Dansby Swanson trails only Jonathan Schoop in league-wide OAA with 21. Brendan Rodgers is only 2 defensive runs saved behind Ke’Bryan Hayes, but his OAA is only a pitiful top-100. Many of these guys have arguments, but Arenado’s name carries a certain weight behind it.

AL

Jose Trevino
Steven Kwan
Myles Straw
Andres Gimenez

Trevino’s 17 catcher framing runs and 20.5 FRAA are far and away the best in the league for catchers. In a relatively weak class, Yankees catcher Jose Trevino is likely to run away with the award. If you’ve watched any Yankees games this year, it’s likely that you saw Jose Trevino’s glove save the game one way or the other. Also, as one of two big-city players (shout out to DJ Lemahieu), big-city bias is going to make this an easy win for Trevino. Trevino is set to become the first non-Yadi catcher to win the Platinum Glove.

If there is some odd anti-catcher bias within the general population, then the platinum glove race would become a true toss-up. Steven Kwan’s got an argument. He’s a gold glove winner as a rookie, his directional OAA is top-8 in the league, he’s got a top-4 DRS, and he’s got a bevy of cool nicknames (Kwan Academy, Kwantam Realm, Kwantam Computer, Kwandale Single, Hit The Kwan, Steven Kwanset… ok I’ll stop now). Many people forget to account for the cool nickname factor, but not I. If not Trevino, it must be Kwan.

The more reasonable choice would be fellow Cleveland Guardians: outfielder Myles Straw and second basemen Andres Gimenez. Myles Straw and Gimenez have leads over Kwan in every non-FanGraphs-DRS defensive statistic, but both lack Kwan’s cool nicknames.

Check out my world series prediction while you are here!