Christian Walker and Gabriel Moreno Win Gold Glove Awards
The 2023 Rawlings Gold Glove awards were announced today. First baseman Christian Walker and catcher Gabriel Moreno were named the winners for the National League at their respective positions.
For Walker, this is his second consecutive Gold Glove Award. Sports Info Solutions credits him with +9 defensive runs saved, second to Carlos Santana on that leaderboard, and paces the Statcast leaderboard at +11 Outs Above Average and +9 runs prevented. Walker has been named a finalist in three of the past four 162-game seasons at first base.
Moreno will be taking home his first Gold Glove this season. He led all major league players in defensive WAR (3.1) according to Baseball Reference, with his +20 DRS tops amongst all catchers. He was a big reason why the D-backs went on a deep playoff run, as Arizona was 57-37 in the regular season and 10-7 in the postseason when he started behind home plate. Moreno led all National League catchers in caught stealing rate, with 22 of 57 potential basestealers turned away. Statcast's +9 Caught Stealing Above Metric credits him as the best at his position as well.
Alek Thomas was named a finalist for the second season in a row, but lost out to the Rockies' Brenton Doyle. Thomas is arguably the best defensive outfielder on the current 40-man roster, but did miss some opportunities to play more as his bat hasn't arrived yet to the big leagues.
