For the first time since 2016, the Giants have three finalists for the National League Gold Glove award. Matt Chapman, Patrick Bailey and Mike Yastrzemski were all top-three finishers for their position, as determined by a vote from opposing managers and coaches (75 percent) and a charming, elusive and probably outdated metric, the SABR Defensive Index (25 percent).
GO DEEPER
MLB Gold Glove Award finalists announced
While all three finalists won’t win the award like they did in 2016 (Buster Posey, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford), it would be a shock if San Francisco didn’t have at least one winner. The Giants will probably have two. They even have a shot at someone winning a Platinum Glove for the first time in team history, which would be a tremendous honor, even if the award itself is way sillier than it should be. But we’ll get to that.
Until then, let’s turn to the video evidence and remember what made the three finalists so impressive to opposing coaches and managers in the first place.
Mike Yastrzemski, RF
We’ll start with the finalist who wasn’t a given. While it’s easy to appreciate Yastrzemski if you watch him every day, the defensive metrics are less impressed. He grades out as an average or even below-average fielder by several metrics (including Outs Above Average, Fielding Run Value, UZR), while the SABR Defensive Index and Defensive Runs Saved are more positive. Which supports my theory that most defensive metrics are like someone trying to weigh a sneeze in a thunderstorm.
Yastrzemski is finalist, though, for a couple reasons. The first is that he plays Oracle Park like a talented fielder who’s familiar with the funky configurations, which he is. While a lot of these defensive metrics take the ballpark into account, I’m pretty sure they’re not still giving him enough credit — either because he’s losing chances to make more routine and unlikely catches because of the short fence down the line, or because he’s getting demerits for Triples Alley, which no right fielder should be expected to cover in its entirety.
Even if I’m wrong, though, Yastrzemski is a finalist because he passes the eye test. Here’s one of the most ridiculous plays of the season:
If I’m Jeimer Candelario, I’m not leaving second base until I’m in handcuffs. Send the cops after me, I don’t care. That’s a double and I’m not moving.
Yastrzemski also passes the eye test when it comes to his clean routes. The numbers back that up and suggest that he’s one of the most direct route-runners in any outfield. There’s no way he gets to this if he’s wasting steps along the way:
Yastrzemski isn’t likely to win, with the Milwaukee Brewers’ Sal Frelick lapping him in most defensive metrics and in general reputation, but it’s about time he was nominated.
Patrick Bailey, C
If you believe FanGraphs’ DEF stat, Bailey wasn’t just the best defensive catcher in baseball; he was the best defender in baseball, and it wasn’t close. I know I’m throwing a lot of acronyms at you, and I understand only about 25 percent of them, but if there’s anything remotely useful about this metric, Bailey should win the Platinum Glove*.
* The Platinum Glove sounds really cool, but it’s a silly award voted on by the fans. It’s not as impressive when you realize it’s as rigorously researched as the average All-Star ballot. That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to call him a Platinum Glove winner for the rest of his career, though.
The genius of Bailey revolves around two parts of his defensive game. The first is his ability to control the running game. Or, at least, to control the running game as much as his pitchers allow him to. Runners were closer to second base when they attempted a steal against Bailey than they were against almost any other catcher.
Here’s a throw that made John Kruk and Tom McCarthy jinx each other with their “What a throw” reactions. First one to count to 10 gets a free Coke.
This is the best example of his arm from a statistical standpoint too, as Baseball Savant keeps track of all sorts of data on catcher throwing, and this was Bailey’s best according to them. You can keep those high-falutin’ numbers, though, because all I need to see are two screenshots:
That simply isn’t a pitch that should give Bailey a chance, but look where he puts the throw! I couldn’t roll it there from three feet away with $100,000 on the line.
The most valuable part of Bailey’s defensive game, though, is his pitch framing. He steals more strikes than any other catcher, which is important for pitchers like Tyler Rogers and Logan Webb, who thrive with unusual movement that can fool umpires just as much as batters.
It’s hard to sum up a catcher’s ability with a single video, but this one does a great job. It’s perfect because the strike-zone graphic is pretty faint, so when you look back to where the pitch actually crossed the plate, it feels like an AI trick.
The announcers don’t notice because it looks like it’s right down the middle. It doesn’t look like Kyle Harrison just shaves the corner; it almost looks like he hung it. Part of that is the camera angle that’s even more off-center than usual, but most of it is Bailey’s flawless framing.
If there’s a downside to Bailey as a defensive catcher, it’s that he’s not the best at blocking balls in the dirt, although he improved greatly from last year, moving from one of the least effective catchers to an average one. This isn’t a skill issue, necessarily. It’s because he’s sacrificing wild pitches in the service of stolen strikes. Look at his technique here, where he’s trying to frame a ball that bounces in the dirt.
Shoot your shots, Patrick.
You can see how he’s less likely to block a ball in the dirt with this style. If you believe the numbers — and it sure looks like the Giants and their coaches do — he’s prioritizing the right thing.
Matt Chapman, 3B
Before the Gold Glove finalists were announced, I was already working on a Chapman defensive recap. The working title was “I watched every Matt Chapman defensive play of the season so you don’t have to,” except I was going to have to change it. Not because I didn’t watch every defensive play, but because I did and highly recommend doing so. Keep them open in a tab and watch a couple every day until baseball starts again.
Here’s the very first chance he got as a Giant, which was some excellent foreshadowing. Don’t forget to switch over to the opposing announcers if they’re available because you can hear their admiration even on the seemingly routine plays.
Chapman could absolutely carry an article like this on his own, but I’ll just highlight some of the more obvious gems. Chapman is a Gold Glove finalist because he can make plays to his right.
He can make plays to his left.
He can charge the ball, too. You knew this play was coming:
I chose that last one because it’s one of the best defensive plays I’ve ever seen in real time, considering the situation, but I chose the other two because they’re all from the same road trip. This is a week of the Matt Chapman experience, and these aren’t even the only plays he made. Javier López is laughing at the end of a lot of these because Chapman just kept bending time and space.
The game-ender against the Mets is peerless, but I have a couple of underrated favorites. Here’s Chapman faking a Rockies camera operator out of their shorts:
And here’s, perhaps, the most underrated play Chapman made all season, in which he makes an announcer look bad for assuming prematurely:
Elly De La Cruz did not, in fact, score on that play, and as if the play wasn’t impressive enough, look where Chapman was before the pitch was thrown:
And here’s where he threw from:
TJ Friedl is on the slower side, but he’s far from the slowest player in baseball. There was no reason to expect Chapman to make this play, unless you believe he’s a warlock. Which he probably is. And if he doesn’t win the Gold Glove, there’s something rotten going on.
If he doesn’t win the Platinum Glove, that’s because people voted for their favorite player. Last year’s winner, Fernando Tatis Jr., wasn’t even nominated this year. But if Chapman doesn’t win it this year, it could also be because his teammate won it.
It wasn’t a great season for the ol’ Giants, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t things to appreciate. The Giants employed three of the best defenders in the game, and it was some of the best entertainment the sport can offer.
(Photo of Chapman throwing to first base: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
