Brewers' Christian Yelich and Corbin Burnes are named Gold Glove finalists
Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich and pitcher Corbin Burnes were announced as Gold Glove Award finalists by Rawlings on Thursday afternoon.
Yelich, a finalist in left field, won a Gold Glove in 2014 and received a nod this year despite grading out as one of the poorer defensive leftfielders in baseball by many metrics.
Yelich, who was named a finalist alongside Chicago’s Ian Happ and Arizona’s David Peralta, made 114 starts in left in 2022 but his -4 outs above average according to Statcast ranked 30th out of 40 qualifying major league leftfielders. His arm strength of 81.7 mph ranked 151st out of 155.
Yelich’s -2 defensive runs saved graded out below average across all of baseball but was fifth among 18 leftfielders with at least 600 innings played by ultimate zone rating.
The awards are given out based on a combination of votes from managers and coaches from around the league and players’ SABR defensive index rating.
The award rules state outfielders must have played in the field for 698 innings through his team’s first 138 games, which is when voting begins. A closer look at the NL leaderboards in left field shows Yelich was one of just eight eligible players at the position. Still, Yelich trailed all qualified players but Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber in outs above average and was fifth out of the eight in defensive runs saved. A look at more traditional defensive statistics shows Yelich’s two outfield assists were tied for last and he had only one error, but errors are not an effective way by which to judge outfield defense.
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Burnes is a first-time finalist after finishing 16th in the NL with 17 assists from his spot as a pitcher with two errors. He also helped turn three double plays, the second-most among NL pitchers and finished fourth in defensive runs saved with 4.
Burnes fared far better at controlling the running game than he did last year when 18 of 20 attempted base stealers were successful. This year, he allowed only five stolen bases while four runners were caught stealing.
Shortstop Willy Adames, the team’s best defender in 2022, was left off the list of finalists.
Atlanta’s Max Fried and Los Angeles’ Tyler Anderson are the other finalists at pitcher.
Winners will be announced in November.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers' Christian Yelich and Corbin Burnes named Gold Glove finalists
