Colorado Rockies: Nolan Arenado wins 7th consecutive NL Gold Glove Award

The Rawlings Gold Glove Award Winners were announced on ESPN2 tonight and the Colorado Rockies had two nominees and one winner.

The Colorado Rockies went 1-for-2 with those two nominees as Nolan Arenado won his seventh consecutive NL Gold Glove Award for third baseman. Rockies shortstop Trevor Story was a finalist for his position as well but he lost out on the award to D’Backs shortstop Nick Ahmed, who was the reigning NL Gold Glove Winner at shortstop.

Arenado, 28, was in a four-way tie for second in the National League with 8 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) along with Dbacks’ Eduardo Escobar, the Marlins’ Brian Anderson, and the Phillies’ Scott Kingery, according to Fangraphs. The Braves’ Josh Donaldson was first among NL third baseman with 15 DRS.

By UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating), though, Arenado was the clear winner as his 10.3 UZR was more than double of the next highest NL third baseman, which was Kingery’s 4.5 UZR.

However, Kingery, Escobar, and Anderson weren’t even nominated for the Gold Glove as the NL third base nominees were Arenado, the aforementioned Josh Donaldson, and World Champion and new free agent Anthony Rendon.

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With winning his 7th Gold Glove, Arenado is now 4th all-time at the position, as he is only trailing Orioles Hall-of-Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson (16), Phillies Hall-of-Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt (10), and Scott Rolen (8).

At shortstop, Story was second among NL shortstops in DRS, according to Fangraphs, with 17. The Dbacks’ Nick Ahmed was first in that category as he had 18 DRS but he played in 123 2/3 more innings played at shortstop than Story.

The position was an area of strength defensively in 2019 as along with Ahmed and Story, Cubs shortstop Javier Baez, Paul DeJong of the Cardinals, and Miguel Rojas of the Marlins all had double digit DRS. Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager and Cincinnati Reds shortstop Jose Iglesias also had 9 and 8 DRS, respectively.

With UZR according to Fangraphs, Story was third among NL shortstops at 8.6. Paul DeJong (11.7) and Javier Baez (10.0) were the only shortstops higher than Story.

DeJong and Ahmed were the other finalists for the NL Gold Glove Award for shortstop this season.

Stay tuned throughout the week as the finalists for other awards, including MVP, Manager of the Year, and others will be announced.