Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon win Gold Gloves

Eric Hosmer wins his fourth Gold Glove Award over Boston’s Mitch Moreland and Cleveland’s Carlos Santana. Only eight first basemen in history have won more Gold Gloves - Keith Hernandez, Don Mattingly, George Scott, Vic Power, Bill White, Wes Parker, J.T. Snow, and Mark Teixeira. The metrics were still not kind to Hosmer, although there may be reasons why he doesn’t fare well in the stats.

Alex Gordon won his fifth Gold Glove, his first since 2014. Only Frank White has won more Gold Gloves in franchise history. Gordon may have disappointed with the bat this year, but he still made outstanding plays all year and led all left fielders in Defensive Runs Above Average. The other finalists were Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner and Justin Upton, who spent time with the Tigers and Angels.

Salvador Perez lost out on the Gold Glove to Angels catcher Martin Maldonado. Perez had the worst caught-stealing numbers of his career, although a lot of that was probably due to Jason Hammel joining the rotation, and the loss of Yordano Ventura, one of the best pitchers at thwarting base-stealers. Maldonado is cited as a plus pitch-framer and is the first catcher other than Salvy to win the award since Matt Wieters in 2012.

Lorenzo Cain also lost out to Byron Buxton, as many expected. Cain was a finalist for the first time since 2013, but Buxton was outstanding in the field by many metrics and by the eye-test.

The Gold Glove Awards were determined by voting by managers and coaches around baseball who were prohibited from voting from their own players. Those votes are combined with the SABR Defensive Index to come up with the winners.