Lorenzo Cain named a finalist for NL Gold Glove in centerfield

2019 was a trying year for Lorenzo Cain for a lot of reasons, but it still could end up being a memorable one with one of the few honors that has eluded him during his career.

Cain is (once again) being named a finalist for a Gold Glove. He joins Washington’s Victor Robles and St. Louis’ Harrison Bader as the final contenders for the NL centerfield award.

Cain was also a finalist for the Brewers in center field last year along with Billy Hamilton and Ender Inciarte, but lost to Inciarte, who won his third consecutive Gold Glove.

Cain put up 20 Defensive Runs Saved in center for the second straight year, ranking third in all of baseball for any position, trailing just Cleveland catcher Roberto Perez (29) and Washington’s Victor Robles (22).

The most recent publicly-available SABR Defensive Index rankings -- which factor into the Gold Glove results, along with manager/coach voting -- gave Cain an SDI of 6.7 as of August 18th, tops among all NL centerfielders. Robles was the second-rated centerfielder through that date with an SDI of 5.2. Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna, Jr. was a distant third at 2.3.

Could this be Cain’s best chance yet at finally getting his much-overdue Gold Glove?

Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and SABR