Christian Yelich and Corbin Burnes named Gold Glove Award finalists

Rawlings announced the finalists for the 2022 Gold Glove Awards on Thursday afternoon, and Christian Yelich and Corbin Burnes are National League nominees for the left field and pitcher positions, respectively.

Yelich’s nomination comes despite the fact that he is a below-average defensive outfielder. He previously won the award in 2014 but finished this season with -2 Defensive Runs Saved, -4 Outs Above Average and -0.9 Fielding Runs Above Average in left field.

Yelich also has one of the worst throwing arms in the game, finishing fifth-worst among qualified outfielders in average throw speed.

The former MVP’s selection as a finalist likely has more to do with his quantity of work and a limited pool of candidates. Yelich was one of just three left fielders to log at least 1,000 innings at the position during the regular season.

Per Rawlings, a player must spend at least 698 innings in the field through his team’s first 138 regular-season games to be eligible for Gold Glove voting.

Based on those criteria, Yelich’s main competition for the final nomination was Tommy Pham and Jurickson Profar, who graded out well in DRS and FRAA but poorly in OAA.

This is the fifth Gold Glove nomination of Yelich’s career. It’s the first for Burnes, who finished second among qualified National League pitchers in DRS (4), first in putouts (32) and tied for first by participating in three double plays.

Ian Happ and David Peralta join Yelich as National League finalists for left field, while Max Fried and Tyler Anderson round out the pitcher nominees.

Each MLB team gets seven votes, one for the manager and six for coaches. These results are combined with each player’s SABR defensive index rating to decide the winners.

ESPN will reveal the winners in an exclusive broadcast on November 1 at 4:00 p.m. CT.