In case you missed it, the Colorado Rockies have three players up for a Rawlings Gold Glove award. Two of those players are no strangers to the honor.
Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki are both two-time Gold Glovers in the NL, both winning in 2010. Tulowitzki won again in 2011 and Gonzalez took home the award in 2012 despite having awful defensive metrics.
While those two guys are great fielders who have a decent shot at winning for the third time, the real gem here is third baseman Nolan Arenado. The 22-year-old rookie fell just short of being a 4-rWAR player basically on defense alone. His 3.6 defensive rWAR ranked fourth in the National League overall and tops among third basemen. He finished seven runs above average in Baseball-Reference's defensive metric, Total Zone Runs Saved, and posted a staggering 22.5 UZR, which is Fangraphs' measurement.
Either way, Arenado was an elite defender who definitely passed the eye test to go along with the impressive advanced metrics.
But, did he hit enough to win? And, will voters look past his rookie status? Both of those factors have reared their ugly heads in recent years. Let's hope that's not the case this time around.
The winners will be announced tonight at 6 p.m. MT during a special episode of "Baseball Tonight" on ESPN2. You can also stay tuned to Purple Row to find out whether or not any of the three Rockies come out on top.
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