Giants SS Crawford wins first Gold Glove Award

While Crawford was the Giants’ lone Gold Glove victor, they also had finalists at first base (Brandon Belt), third base (Matt Duffy) and catcher (Buster Posey), and Crawford pointed out second baseman Joe Panik might have been a finalist if a back injury hadn’t sidelined him for most of the second half. Crawford is the first Giant to win a Gold Glove at shortstop since Omar Vizquel in 2006. Crawford posted an MLB-best 19 Total Zone Runs (the number of runs above or below average the player was worth based on the number of plays made) in 2015, four more than his nearest competitor, Atlanta’s Andrelton Simmons.

The Gold Glove Awards will be revealed at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Other NL winners were Miami second baseman Dee Gordon, Colorado third baseman Nolan Arenado, Pittsburgh left fielder Starling Marte and Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke. Other AL winners were Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, Tigers/Mets left fielder Yoenis Cespedes, Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, Angels right fielder Kole Calhoun and Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel.

“You guys all know how I pride myself on my defense”. This is the first Gold Glove Award of Crawford’s career. Simmons has led the NL in Defensive WAR in each of his three full seasons and leads all major league defenders by a wide margin in that category since breaking into the majors during the 2012 season.

Simmons won the Gold Glove the previous two seasons, and Crawford said while he was “optimistic” about his chances this year, he was still “a little bit surprised” when he learned from his agent he’d won.

Besides making it seem so free and easy, Crawford makes these plays on any given night and has proven that he is in fact the greatest shortstop in the game. And although offensive statistics are not supposed to be considered in Gold Glove voting, there have been complaints for decades of hitting stats factoring into the voting by a few coaches and managers.

Contributing both in the field and at the plate, Crawford had his best season as a pro, earning his first Major League Baseball All-Star selection this year.

Vizquel won Gold Gloves in 2005-06, but the Giants had not had a Gold Glove recipient since.