Rawlings announced late Friday night that Pete Crow-Armstrong was the winner of the NL Platinum Glove, which is determined by a combination of fan voting and the SABR Defensive Index. So while it was a no-brainer for the best defensive player in baseball to win it, the who fan vote thing can muck up the results. This was the first time since the award’s inception in 2011 that an NL center fielder won it, which I found somewhat surprising. Perhaps not as surprising as former Cub Cody Bellinger winning in the AL, but still.
The Cubs also won the team Gold Glove, a fact that was not included when this was first published. Pretty much a no-brainer, so I didn’t feel like putting together a whole separate piece.
PCA led MLB with 25 outs above average and a fielding run value of 26 by getting tremendous jumps and using his superior range to track down balls most other players could never hope to catch. His speed is in the 95th percentile and his arm is in the 90th, so he’s also able to impact the game by making baserunners think twice about trying to stretch out hits.
Detractors will point to PCA’s six errors, most among his peers, as an indication that he’s not actually the best outfielder in the game. Those people are dumb and don’t deserve to hold an opinion about baseball, so you’d do well to avoid them. By the time his career is over, Crow-Armstrong will go down as one of the best to ever do it.
Next up is the announcement of his NL MVP on November 12.
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