Rookies Anthony Volpe, Brenton Doyle among 2023 MLB Gold Glove winners

May 2024 · 5 minute read

The 2023 Gold Glove Award winners were announced Sunday night, honoring the best individual fielding performances at each position in the American and National Leagues. Here’s what you need to know:

National League Gold Glove winners:

American League Gold Glover winners:

Volpe wins Gold Glove … but will he stay at SS?

I’m not sure if Volpe was the best defensive American League shortstop I saw this season, but he was the clear choice over the two other finalists: Minnesota Twins’ Carlos Correa and Texas Rangers’ Corey Seager. Volpe’s advanced metrics were much better than Correa’s and Seager’s, beating them both out in defensive runs saved, outs above average and FanGraphs’ defense runs above average. The only knock Volpe had against those two was committing more errors than both, but judging a defender solely off of errors doesn’t show the complete picture of that player.

Advertisement

Volpe came into the 2023 season seen as an inferior defensive prospect compared with Oswald Peraza. Even with a Gold Glove now to his name, long term, Peraza still has a better defensive package at shortstop than Volpe. He has more range, a much stronger arm and is smoother at the position than Volpe. It’ll be interesting though to see if winning a Gold Glove affects how the Yankees view their middle infield because, from a defensive standpoint, their best alignment might be Peraza at shortstop and Volpe at second base.

Winning a Gold Glove caps a rookie season full of potential for Volpe. He finished 2023 with over 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases and is now recognized with the Yankees’ first Gold Glove at shortstop since Jeter won in 2010. Moving into 2024, the focus for Volpe has to be to develop more overall consistency at the plate. — Chris Kirschner, Yankees beat writer

Cubs’ investment in defense pays off

This is what the Cubs envisioned when they made a huge investment in defense last offseason, signing Dansby Swanson to a seven-year, $177 million contract and moving Nico Hoerner off shortstop. Before and after Opening Day, the Cubs closed contract extensions with Hoerner and left fielder Ian Happ, adding to their nucleus of core players signed through at least 2026. With those three Gold Glove winners in place, defense will continue to be a big part of this team’s identity.

Swanson, who led all shortstops with 18 defensive runs saved, is one of those players who you need to see every day to fully appreciate his talents. Hoerner switched positions without complaint and posted a .988 fielding percentage at second base. Happ, who won his second consecutive Gold Glove, led all left fielders with 12 outfield assists.

This is the first time the Cubs have had at least three players earn Gold Gloves in a season.

Advertisement

“From the beginning of the year, as a team, we were really going to be valuing run prevention,” Hoerner said. “Whether we got the awards or not, I felt that our team really did that. For the three of us to get recognition, it feels great.”

Defense was in mind when team president Jed Hoyer made Swanson a free-agent priority in the offseason. Part of the focus was that with the shift being limited starting in 2023, having a shortstop good enough to push Hoerner to second base would make the duo all the more valuable.

“I think it gives it a more natural feel for what our game is supposed to look like,” Swanson said of the shift. “There’s a reason (second and shortstop) have always been premium defensive positions in the game’s history. It almost gave each other a gut check in terms of understanding baseball and anticipating where balls are going to go and how to make adjustments. I thought we did such a good job of that and always being in each other’s ear of where we wanted to be in order to maximize each other’s range.”

It should also be noted that the team’s solid overall defense looked shaky at times during a late-season collapse. However the organization responds to that disappointment, these three players will be important pieces for the future. — Patrick Mooney, Cubs beat writer

Required reading

(Photo: Gregory Fisher / USA Today)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57lGlqa3FjanxzfJFsZmppX2WCcLnLm2Sgp5yZeqi4zq%2BcZq%2BZo7umvtJmaWlqY2Q%3D