Yadier Molina, Alex Gordon win 2014 Platinum Glove awards
On Tuesday, Major League Baseball and Rawlings announced the nine individual Gold Glove winners from each league based on votes by players and managers, along with a new sabermetric component that was introduced to the process in 2013. After the 2014 winners were announced, they were then grouped together by league, with fan voting and a sabermetric component again being utilized to determine the Rawlings Platinum Glove winners — aka the very best fielder in each league.
On Friday, Rawlings announced the winners during their annual Gold Glove ceremony at The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, and it was the state of Missouri that dominated with St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina officially claiming his third Platinum Glove and Kansas City Royals left fielder Alex Gordon earning his first.
It’s the fourth season the Platinum Glove has been awarded to the top glove men. Molina and Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre both claimed the award in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, they were unseated by Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado and Atlanta Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who edged Molina 20.2 to 20 percent in the overall selection tally.
For one year anyway, youth was served with Machado (then 21) and Simmons (24). Now it’s back in the 30-and-over crowd with two of the most respected defenders in the game.
Molina, 32, earned 20.6 percent this season, beating out New York Mets center fielder Juan Lagares (17.7 percent), and Simmons (15.5 percent) for the top NL honor. This despite Molina missing nearly two months with a ligament tear in his right thumb.
On highlight plays alone, an argument could have been made for Simmons to win his second straight award. Though he did see a dip in DSR (defensive run scored) at 28 compared to 41 in 2013, that mark still tied for second among all defenders with Lagares. Simmons’ UZR (ultimate zone rating) also dropped from 24.6 to 15.5, but still led baseball for all shortstops.
It may have been a case where Simmons was so good with the glove last season, it actually seemed like a step back when in fact he was still at the top of his field. That, or people felt Molina’s impact on the Cardinals was too much to ignore.
Gordon, 30, received 21.6 percent to beat out Royals teammate Salvador Perez (15.9 percent) and Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia (13.2 percent). He’s the first outfielder to win the Platinum Glove, though there are definitely those who feel a left fielder in particular doesn’t play a difficult enough position to draw such consideration. To his credit though, he led all of MLB with a 25.0 UZR according to Fangraphs.
Obviously, both selections can be nitpicked and analyzed from a thousand different angles. But it’s too late to take the hardware away now. Congrats to both Molina and Gordon.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
