Five Biggest Gold Glove Snubs of 2024

The 2024 MLB award season is fast approaching, as nominations for certain awards are already starting to roll in.

This time of year invokes excitement and spirited debates about who should take home hardware.

While conversations can revolve around who will win specific awards, there’s always an equal amount of conversations to be had surrounding who won’t be adding to their trophy case.

Year after year, there’s always at least one player deserving of an award that ends up drawing the short straw and being snubbed.

The current “snubbed” conversations around the MLB community revolve around Tuesday’s announcement of the 2024 Gold Glove Award finalists.

There are certainly some noteworthy names that won’t be receiving the gold standard recognition they deserve for their exceptional defensive contributions this season.

Here are the five biggest snubs for this season’s Gold Glove Awards.

All stats, figures and leaderboard mentions include players with at least 600 innings played at their respective positions.

Francisco Lindor (NYM) – SS

There may not be a player more disrespected in all of baseball than Francisco Lindor.

After being robbed of a spot in this year’s All-Star game, being a Gold Glove finalist seemed all but a guarantee for a guy who ranked second in the NL in both outs above average (OAA) and FanGraphs’ defensive value (DEF), at 16 and 17.5 respectively.

Both Dansby Swanson and Ezequiel Tovar certainly deserve to be finalists, as both sit in the top five in OAA and DEF, as well as defensive runs saved (DRS) and ultimate zone rating (UZR).

Where Lindor should’ve fit into the mix, though, was over St. Louis Cardinals rookie shortstop Masyn Winn.

There’s no denying Winn was a great defender in 2024, as made evident by his NL-leading 14 DRS. But looking across the board, Lindor bested him in most defensive metrics. Winn falls outside the top five amongst NL shortstops in DEF, OAA and UZR. Lindor, on the other hand, sits top three in OAA and DEF and top five in UZR.

William Contreras (MIL) – C

The National League has been well represented from a defensive standpoint at the catching position this season, with the likes of San Francisco’s Patrick Bailey and Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno leading the way. But alongside those two names should certainly be Milwaukee’s William Contreras.

Contreras finished the season third in the NL in DRS, fourth in DEF and fourth in FanGraphs’ frame rate, among catchers.

Yet, he finds himself on the outside looking in at a Gold Glove this season, with the last finalist nod for the position instead going to Los Angeles Dodgers backstop Will Smith.

Smith’s defensive numbers look underwhelming on their own, but they look even worse when stacked against the numbers of one of baseball’s best catchers in Contreras.

Other than catching 11 more runners stealing than Contreras, Smith’s advanced metrics don’t hold a candle to those of Contreras.

Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) – CF

After a slow start to his big league career, Pete Crow-Armstrong began to really show the league why he was such a highly-touted prospect in the second half of 2024.

And probably the best part of his game is his defensive ability out in center field, which is why our prospect expert Aram Leighton gave him an 80-grade future value on his fielding ability entering the 2024 season.

PCA delivered in a big way defensively in his rookie campaign. He finished tied for first among NL center fielders in DRS (12) and DEF (14.1) while sitting fourth in OAA (14) and tied for sixth in UZR (5.9).

Colorado’s Brenton Doyle and Washington’s Jacob Young certainly deserve to be two of the three finalists at the position, but I would advocate that PCA had a better defensive season than Milwaukee’s Blake Perkins and deserves to be the third finalist over him.

This is not to diminish the season that Perkins had in the field, as he was excellent overall, but PCA has the statistical edge over Perkins virtually across the board.

Jose Siri (TBR) – CF

Jose Siri might be the first instance of a sure-fire deserving winner of a 2024 Gold Glove not even being nominated.

The Rays center fielder led all AL center fielders in OAA (16) and DEF (12.7,) while finishing tied for third in DRS (12) and ranking sixth in UZR (4.5).

But first things first, he should at the very least be on this list over Houston’s Jake Meyers, as Siri topped him in a majority of advanced fielding metrics.

Compared to the other two finalists, Boston’s Jarren Duran and Toronto’s Daulton Varsho, one could have certainly made an argument for Siri to take home the Gold Glove had he been named a finalist over Meyers.

Duran may have posted a UZR 0.7 points higher than Siri, while also having 5 more DRS. But Siri posted a DEF rating 5.8 points higher than his division rival, as well as nine more OAA in 238.1 more innings.

Now, in terms of outfield work as a whole, you’d be hard-pressed to find an outfielder better than Varsho defensively this season. In 1085.1 innings split primarily between center field and left field, Varsho led all MLB outfielders in DRS and UZR. He ranked second in DEF and tied for second in OAA.

But Siri also sits tied for second in OAA. And looking at their work in just center field, the fact Siri played there all season (376.2 more innings than Varsho) has to be worth something, even if that was to no fault of Varsho’s own.

After all, the Gold Glove for center field should go to the guy who played the best center field all season, not just the best outfield in general.

Otto Lopez (MIA) – 2B

Among NL second basemen in 2024, the Miami Marlins had one of the best in Otto Lopez. Yet, he finds himself snubbed of the opportunity to take home his first Gold Glove.

In 850.1 innings at the position this season, Lopez led all second basemen in the NL in OAA (17) and DEF (13.8), while ranking third in DRS and second in UZR.

Arizona’s Ketel Marte and Brice Turang, the two to best Lopez in DRS, are undoubtedly worthy of being finalists.

But Lopez should join them above Philadelphia’s Bryson Stott without question, as he outranks his division rival across the board.

The only reason I see Lopez getting the bump when comparing him to Stott is simply his lesser number of innings at the spot. However, that didn’t stop other finalists from making the cut this season, some of whom had fewer innings played at their respective positions than Lopez did at his.