Gold Glove awards disrespected the Marlins

I wrote about this issue before and now it has culminated as the Gold Glove award winners have been announced. So far there haven't been many exciting news, but as the off-season goes forward we should see more exciting news take place. The big news now are of course the aforementioned Gold Glove awards. They weren't particularly fair for the Miami Marlins.

Otto Lopez wasn't even nominated for a National League Gold Glove award.

Otto Lopez had a great defensive season with the Miami Marlins. He was worth an impressive 1.3 dWAR in 117 games. Offensively, he batted a decent .270/.313/.377 with 6 home runs and 39 RBI, in 117 games and 403 AB. Otto deserved a nomination for a National League Gold Glove award, but that didn't happen.

Who was the winner? It was Brice Turang of the Milwaukee Brewers. I'm not upset over his win, as he was worth 2.8 dWAR in 155 games. That's obviously better than what Otto did, and as I look at dWAR as the main defensive metric, I don't have an issue with him winning. It's the lack of nomination that bothers me. Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks was one of the other nominees. He was worth the same 1.3 dWAR as Otto, but in more games (136). He should not have been nominated over Lopez.

It gets worse when you see the other nominee that was Bryson Stott of the Philadelphia Phillies. Stott had a 1.2 dWAR in 148 games. That's worse than both Otto Lopez and Ketel Marte. Very weird that Otto didn't get a nomination. It just feels unfair that he wasn't rewarded for his good production.

The Philadelphia Phillies actually didn't do very well with Gold Glove wins. Bryce Harper for example was nominated for the first base award, but lost out to Christian Walker of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Harper's teammate Brandon Marsh lost out on the LF award to Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs. They still received nominations, which is better than what the Miami Marlins got. At the end of the day, Gold Glove awards are of course mostly a popularity contest.