There’s one player who was a notable exclusion.
The 2024 Rawlings Gold Glove finalists were announced Tuesday and two Cubs were in the top three of voting: Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ.
Who’s missing there? Why, Pete Crow-Armstrong. The NL finalists in center field are Brenton Doyle of the Rockies, Jacob Young of the Nationals and Blake Perkins of the Brewers.
PCA’s defensive numbers were at least the equal of those three and in some cases, better. PCA had 1.6 defensive bWAR, the same as Doyle and Young and better than Perkins. And in some other advanced defensive metrics, PCA was better. He led all NL center fielders in defensive runs saved with 14.1 (Young was second at 13.3). He was third in Outs Above Average (14 — Young and Doyle were better). And he was tied for first with Young in Fielding Run Value (16).
Not all the voting is done on a statistical basis, and it’s easy to imagine that PCA finished fourth. Nevertheless, I’d consider this a snub — PCA was clearly a better center fielder than Perkins. In the end, I believe PCA will win many Gold Gloves in his career. He should have at least been in the top three in 2024.
As for the actual Cubs nominees, I would think Happ will win another Gold Glove, his third, although Lourdes Gurriel Jr. also had a good year defensively. Happ led the NL in outfield assists with 11. At shortstop, Swanson led the NL in both FRV and OAA and is the likely winner for the third straight year.
Here’s Happ’s catch depicted at the top of this post, Sept. 8 vs. the Yankees [VIDEO].
A reminder that though these are “finalists,” there isn’t another round of voting. The “finalists” are just the top three vote-getters at each position. The winners will be announced in a televised special Sunday, Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m. CT on a special edition of “Baseball Tonight” on ESPN.