BOCA RATON, Fla. – Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons' formidable defense is without peer in the view of many, but for the 2015 season his glove was not officially Gold.
The San Francisco Giants’ Brandon Crawford won the Gold Glove for National League shortstops, to the surprise of many who believed Simmons would collect his third in a row and be an exclusive owner of the award for a decade or so.
The awards were announced Tuesday night, with Cardinals right fielder Jason Heyward winning his third Gold Glove in three seasons, after being traded from the Braves a year ago. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina won his eighth consecutive Gold Glove, and Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado won for the third year in a row.
Simmons, who also won a Platinum Glove as the NL’s best overall defender in 2013, last month won the Fielding Bible Award as the top defensive shortstop in the majors, the third consecutive year that Simmons was a unanimous winner of that award. But when the Gold Gloves were passed out, Simmons was passed over in favor of Crawford.
Other NL winners included Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon, Pirates left fielder Starling Marte, Diamondbacks center fielder A.J. Pollock and Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke.
The World Series champion Royals led the American League with three Gold Glove winners: catcher Salvador Perez, first baseman Eric Hosmer and shortstop Alcides Escobar. Other AL winners were Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, Tigers/Mets left fielder Yoenis Cespedes, Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, Angels right fielder Kole Calhoun and Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel.
“(Simmons) is the best defensive shortstop in the history of the game,” Braves general manager John Coppolella said before Tuesday’s Gold Glove announcement. “If you look at different metrics, the runs he’s saved, the way he plays shortstop for us, having a young (pitching) staff, he is invaluable. He’s got a great makeup. He really takes pride in playing great defense, and he can turn a game around with his glove.”
Managers and coaches in each league vote comprise about 75 percent of the vote for Gold Glove awards, with a sabermetric statistical component accounting for the remainder of the vote.
Simmons led Crawford in most conventional defensive categories (fielding percentage, errors, double plays, etc.) as well as advanced analytics such as UZR, range factor and Defensive WAR. Simmons has led the NL in Defensive WAR in each of his three full seasons and leads all major league defenders by a wide margin in that category since breaking into the majors during the 2012 season.
Crawford is an unquestionably strong defensive shortstop who ranked high in every defensive category and led Simmons in the Society for American Baseball Research’s Defensive Index category.
What went unsaid: Crawford also had a decided advantage in hitting. And although offensive statistics are not supposed to be considered in Gold Glove voting, there have been complaints for decades of hitting stats factoring into the voting by some coaches and managers.
Simmons has led the NL in Defensive WAR for three consecutive seasons, the first time any defender has led his league three years in a row since former Braves center fielder Andruw Jones did it during 2001-2003. Jones won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves.
Simmons ranks sixth among active leaders in career Defensive WAR at 15.2, despite having less than four full seasons in the majors. Every player ranked ahead of him has played at least 11 seasons, and every other player in the top 15 has played at least eight seasons.
