Colorado Rockies Rookie Outfielder Brenton Doyle Makes History With Gold Glove Win
Colorado Rockies rookie Brenton Doyle flashed plenty of leather this season, and he has been rewarded and placed in the baseball history books as a result.
The 25-year-old center fielder won a Gold Glove Award on Sunday, joining plenty of other players who made history in doing so. According to MLB.com's Sarah Langs, Doyle is now the sixth rookie outfielder ever to win a Gold Glove.
Chicago White Sox All-Star Tommie Agee became the first to accomplish the feat in 1966, and it didn't occur again until Fred Lynn did it with the Boston Red Sox in 1975. Seattle Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki did it in 2001, modern White Sox star Luis Robert Jr. did it in 2020 and Cleveland Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan did it in 2022.
Doyle finished the 2023 season batting .203 with 10 home runs, 48 RBI, 22 stolen bases, a .593 OPS and a 0.9 WAR in 126 appearances. He posted a 2.2 dWAR, however, in addition to 10 outfield assists and 19 defensive runs saved – the most by any MLB center fielder.
All 1,023.2 innings Doyle played this season came out in center field.
To earn his Gold Glove, Doyle had to beat out the Atlanta Braves' Michael Harris II the Arizona Diamondbacks' Alek Thomas. Harris had a 0.6 dWAR, while Thomas' was 0.8, neither of which approached Doyle's mark.
Doyle had two teammates who were also finalists for Gold Glove Awards – shortstop Ezequiel Tovar and third baseman Ryan McMahon. The pair lost out to Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson and the Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, respectively.
Despite the best efforts of their elite individual fielders, the Rockies finished 2023 dead last in the NL West for the second year in a row and under .500 for the fifth year in a row.
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