Although there are many legitimate and exciting awards dolled out at the end of every season, winning a Gold Glove is still considered the highest honor available to a defensive player, if only because of its historic profile and constituency. Gold Gloves are voted on by players and managers throughout the league – a.k.a. the peers, not just “baseball experts” – and it’s been handed out for over 60 years. That’s hard to beat.
This year, the Cubs have three Gold Glove finalists, and maybe they’ll win one or two.
But the Gold Glove process is not without its flaws. For one, players and managers may have a front-row seat to a whole lot of action, but necessarily do not get exposure to all of the teams. Some fans and analysts can probably do a better job at seeing more games through each league thanks to our TVs. We’re also probably a little more receptive to advanced defensive metrics (though, they are now involved in the GG voting process) and might value certain things more than other active players. For another, the game has evolved thanks to shifting and an increased reliance on defensive versatility, but the Gold Glove awards don’t necessarily reflect that new reality.
Enter: The Fielding Bible Awards.
Like anything, the Fielding Bible Awards aren’t perfect either, but they do offer a bit of a different look. For one, a panel of 12 “experts” vote on winners for each position, and only one guy at each spot wins an award (instead of one from each league). The award has a shorter history (2006), but also tends to be a more analytically inclined-process than the Gold Glove honors (for better or worse).
But one of the BEST bits about The Fielding Bible Awards is that, unlike their Gold Glove counterparts, there’s a category for best multi-position defender, and you already know who won that one:
1B – Matt Olson, Oakland Athletics
2B – Kolten Wong, St. Louis Cardinals
3B – Matt Chapman, Oakland Athletics
SS – Andrelton Simmons, Los Angeles Angels
LF – Alex Gordon, Kansas City Royals
CF – Lorenzo Cain, Milwaukee Brewers
RF – Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox
C – Jeff Mathis, Arizona Diamondbacks
P – Zack Greinke, Arizona Diamondbacks
Multi-Position – Javier Baez, Chicago Cubs
For the third consecutive season, Javy Baez has been crowned the best multi-positional defender in all of baseball. And given that one of his multiple positions is shortstop – arguably the most difficult defensive spot in front of the plate, even when you commit all your time to perfecting it – it’s easy to see this as *something close* to calling him the best defender in baseball.
No, I don’t think he’s a better defensive shortstop than Andrelton Simmons, but I think the totality of what Baez provides on defense – elite production at three different spots year in and year out – must come close.
And here’s a funny fact: The “multi-position” category was only introduced back in 2014, which means Baez has won the honor in three of the five years it has existed (Lorenzo Cain in 2014, and Ender Inciarte in 2015), and every year in which he was with the Cubs for the entire season.
Depending on whom the Cubs target in free agency or trade this winter, Baez might not move around as much next year, but that’s okay – because if that’s the case, maybe he can just take down one of the individual spot awards. And that would be just as swell.
You can read more about the voting process, the winners, and more at Fielding Bible. In the meantime, congrats to Javy Baez for another job well done.