Mookie Betts, Tyler Anderson named Gold Glove Award finalists

A pair of Dodgers are finalists for baseball’s longest-running fielding honor, with right fielder Mookie Betts and pitcher Tyler Anderson finishing in the top three for National League Gold Glove Awards, in results announced by Rawlings on Thursday.

Gold Glove Awards, which have been awarded since 1957, are voted on by league managers and coaches, but since 2013 a statistical component was added to the decision-making calculus. The SABR Defensive Index (SDI), an amalgam of various fielding statistics, accounts for roughly 25 percent of the vote.

The term finalist is always a little misleading for these awards. It just means the players who finished in the top three. The voting has long since completed. The Gold Glove Award winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 1 at 2 p.m. PT on ESPN, a few hours before Game 4 of the World Series.

Betts won five consecutive Gold Glove Awards from 2016-2020, four with the Red Sox and one in his first season with the Dodgers. He was a finalist among NL right fielders in 2021, with Adam Duvall of Atlanta taking home the honor.

This season, Betts led National League right fielders in Total Zone Rating (+31), and ranked second in Defensive Runs Saved (+15), Ultimate Zone Rating (+12.5), and Outs Above Average (+5). Through games of August 28 — the latest date Rawlings released data — Betts led all NL right fielders in SDI.

Along with Betts, other National League right fielders in the top three for Gold Glove honors are Daulton Varsho of the D-backs and Juan Soto, who played this year for the Nationals and Padres.

Anderson is a first-time finalist for the Gold Glove. Through August 28, Anderson led National League pitchers in SDI, but again that only accounts for a quarter of the vote. Other NL finalists are Atlanta’s Max Fried, who won the last two NL Gold Glove Awards, and Corbin Burnes of the Brewers.

Anderson ranked third among NL pitchers in Defensive Runs Saved (+5), but the two players ranked ahead of him — Philadelphia’s Ranger Suarez (+9) and Taijuan Walker of the Mets (+6) — fell just shy of qualifying for the award. When Gold Glove ballots were finalized in early September, the requirement for pitchers were 138 innings in the team’s first 138 games.

The last Dodgers pitcher to win. Gold Glove Award was Zack Greinke in 2015.