Nolan Arenado Wins Third-Straight Gold Glove Award

facebooktwitterreddit

Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado is pretty amazing. It seemed is if every night the Rockies played, he would be featured on SportsCenter’s Top 10 list with a ridiculous backhand or off-balance throw. Colorado’s third baseman went on to win his third-straight Gold Glove Award Tuesday night. The only other Rockie to win three consecutive Gold Glove Awards you ask? — Larry Walker (1997-1999).

It’s crazy to think that this has been Nolan’s third year in the bigs, capturing a Gold Glove Award in all three. Colorado’s third baseman is a magician with the glove and his instincts are second to none. Arenado beat out Todd Frazier (Cincinnati Reds) and Matt Duffy (San Francisco Giants) for the award.

More from Rox Pile

It was absolutely a no-brainer for Nolan to win his third-straight award, being that he has turned himself into the best all-around third baseman in the league. Yes, even better than Manny Machado. Whenever I think of Nolan Arenado, I flashback to the game against the San Francisco Giants in early April.

Rafael Betancourt was on the mound as Colorado held a 3-0 lead in the bottom half of the eighth. San Francisco had runners on second and first with no outs; the batter was Gregor Blanco. On an 0-1 pitch, Blanco inside-out swung on a pitch, popping it up into foul territory. Little did we know what was about to happen. Nolan Arenado, on a dead sprint from third base, made a Willy Mays-type catch, crashing and falling over the tarp located on the third base side. That play was compared to Derek Jeter‘s dive in to the stands catch, but probably not as memorable.

The 24-year-old made his name known in 2015, doing with both the bat and glove. Arenado led the National League in the following categories:

Home Runs: 42
Runs Batted In: 130
Total Bases: 354
Extra Base Hits: 89
Sacrifice Flies: 11
Putouts as 3B: 105
Assists as 3B: 385
Double Plays Turned as 3B: 42

Unfortunately for Arenado, his bid for National League Most Valuable Player fell short as the list included three players; Bryce Harper, Paul Goldschmidt and Joey Votto.

Teammate DJ LeMahieu failed to collect his second-straight Gold Glove Award as Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins came away with the trophy and deservedly so.

Next: Rockies Year in Review: Carlos Gonzalez

Not to mention, Nolan Arenado put himself in elite company with the Gold Glove Award, being the first National League third baseman to win the award three-straight times since Scott Rolen did so from 2000-2004.