Should we be surprised that no San Francisco Giants player was named a finalist for top defensive honors?
It’s a fair question, and one worth diving into on the heels of the annual announcement of the Gold Glove finalists.
Here’s a look at the full position-by-position breakdown of NL finalists:
On the very broad spectrum that is the FanGraphs team defense metric, the Giants finished as the 10th-best defensive team in baseball and the 7th-best defensive squad in the NL.
Here are the NL teams that were ranked ahead of the Giants and the number of Gold Glove finalists they have:
- Brewers: 1
- Phillies: 3
- Braves: 2
- Padres: 2
- Dodgers: 1
- Diamondbacks: 4
What does that tell us?