Two players with stellar reputations get well-deserved recognition.
Wonderful. Beautiful. Deserved! The two best gloves on the San Francisco Giants, catcher Patrick Bailey and third baseman Matt Chapman, have both been awarded the National League Gold Glove Award for their sublime efforts in the field during the 2024 season.
Tonight’s announcement marked the first time that multiple Giants won the award in the same year since 2016, when Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, and Joe Panik all got one.
Matt Chapman’s pedigree as a Gold Glover was well known to all of us before he ever signed with the Giants. It was part of what made him so appealing. Seeing him day in and day out in 2024 made me realize how little I had seen of him prior and, well, I’ve got to say that he’s simply one of the most athletic Giants I’ve ever seen. It’s fun to watch him run and field, and the power is a nice addition. It’s his fifth time winning the award and what will most likely be the first of multiple in the National League.
Meanwhile, Patrick Bailey has been a star defender ever since he came on the scene last May. It was only because of Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno and Bailey’s own lackluster bat that prevented him from winning the award last season. This year, he joins 13 other players as first-time winners of the league’s top defensive award.
A couple of weeks ago, Sean dug into his candidacy a bit more:
Bailey was third in baseball with 20 DRS, behind only second basemen Brice Turang and Andres Gimenez. That’s again primarily due to pitch framing, where Bailey is credited with 15 runs worth of extra strike calls for Giants pitchers. He also saved more runs than any catcher besides Smith by throwing out 26 base stealers
Mike Yastrzemski was also nominated for his solid work in right field but lost out to Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick.
As Maria Guardado mentions for SFGiants.com,
All 30 MLB managers and up to six coaches from each team vote from a pool of players in their league, excluding players from their own team, to determine the Gold Glove winners. Those votes comprise 75% of the selection total, with the SABR Defensive Index counting for the other 25%.
So, it’s a remarkable award that reflects industry consensus plus a statistical component.
When you try to imagine the next great Giants team, you can’t help but assume it’ll feature Bailey and Chapman on it, amplifying and aiding its pitching and keep games close enough for lineups to push ahead. That these two are among the best defenders in the sport, regardless of position, it’s really to imagine the next great Giants team is imminent.