Andrew Benintendi and Michael A. Taylor win Gold Glove Awards

Andrew Benintendi and Michael A. Taylor each won their first Gold Glove Award on Sunday night as Rawlings Sporting Goods announced its winners on ESPN. Whit Merrifield and Salvador Perez were also up for Gold Glove Awards, but fell short. Marcus Semien of the Blue Jays won the award at second base and Sean Murphy of the Athletics won it at catcher. Benintendi and Taylor were each in their first season with the Royals.

Andrew Benintendi tied for the lead among all American League left fielders in Defensive Runs Saved, winning honors over Randy Arozarena of the Rays and Lourdes Gurriel, Jr of the Blue Jays. It is the fifth consecutive year a Royals left fielder has won the award - Alex Gordon won the previous four.

Michael Taylor led all outfielders in Ultimate Zone Rating and led all centerfielders in Defensive Runs Above Average, while finishing second among all players in Defensive Saved. He is the first Royals centerfielder to win the award since Willie Wilson in 1980.

Carlos Correa of the Astros won the award at shortstop, while Nicky Lopez, who led all AL shortstop in Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Above Average, was not a finalist.

The Gold Glove Awards winners are selected by the managers of the 30 MLB teams and up to six of each team’s respective coaches. Each manager and coach vote from a pool of qualified players in their League and cannot vote for players from their own team. A defensive metric - The SABR Defensive Index (SDI) - comprises approximately 25 percent of the overall selection total.

American League Gold Glove winners

C - Sean Murphy, Athletics

1B - Yuli Gurriel, Astros

2B - Marcus Semien, Blue Jays

SS - Carlos Correa, Astros

3B - Matt Chapman, Athletics

LF - Andrew Benintendi, Royals

CF - Michael A. Taylor, Royals

RF - Joey Gallo, Rangers/Yankees

P - Dallas Keuchel, White Sox

National League Gold Glove winners

C - Jacob Stallings, Pirates

1B - Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals

2B - Tommy Edman, Cardinals

SS - Brandon Crawford, Giants

3B - Nolan Arenado, Cardinals

LF - Tyler O’Neill, Cardinals

CF - Harrison Bader, Cardinals

RF - Adam Duvall, Marlins/Braves

P - Max Fried, Braves