Cardinals 3B Nolan Arenado edges Pirates' Ke'Bryan Hayes for 10th NL Gold Glove

Even as Derek Shelton lobbied for Ke’Bryan Hayes to win the Gold Glove as the National League’s best defensive third baseman, the Pittsburgh Pirates manager acknowledged an obstacle:

Unseating Nolan Arenado wouldn’t be easy.

Although Hayes had an advantage over Arenado in nearly every metric used to measure defensive excellence, the St. Louis Cardinals third baseman was a nine-time Gold Glove winner and a five-time winner of the Platinum Glove and Fielding Bible awards.

Arenado edged Hayes and Colorado’s Ryan McMahon to win a 10th consecutive Gold Glove on Tuesday, when Rawlings announced the winners. Arenado tied Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt for most Gold Gloves by an NL third baseman (Brooks Robinson owns the most in the majors, with 16).

Hayes was attempting to become the first Pirates third baseman to win a Gold Glove.

“It’s hard to change that narrative,” Shelton said in early October, when the Cardinals visited PNC Park in the final homestand of the season. “I think the difference in changing that narrative is if there’s a huge gap. The guy down there is really, really good. Unfortunately, we get to see that a lot being in our division. So that narrative is hard to change. I can have a personal opinion on where he stands, but I understand all that because you don’t win nine Gold Gloves in a row without being really talented, and Nolan’s really talented.”

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Not only did the 25-year-old Hayes have the most defensive runs saved(24) of the three finalists, but, per FanGraphs, was worth more Outs Above Average (18), had the highest fielding percentage (.972) and the most putouts (109), assists (307) and chances (428).

Arenado finished with 19 DRS, 15 OAA, a .968 fielding percentage, with 84 putouts and 283 assists in 379 chances. Arenado and Hayes had a dozen errors each and McMahon had 17, but Arenado turned two more double plays (38) than Hayes and 11 more than McMahon, who finished with 11 DRS, 10 OAA and a .953 fielding percentage.

Hayes won the Fielding Bible Award in 2021 but wasn’t eligible for the Gold Glove Award because he didn’t meet the Rawlings requirement of playing in 713 innings by the Pirates’ 142nd game after spending 60 days on the injured list with a bothersome left hand/wrist.

Hayes set the goal this past spring training of playing as much as possible and played in 1,102 2/3 innings over 133 games. He committed five of his 12 errors in May, including three in a five-game span, but stood out the rest of the season.

Shelton lobbied for Hayes to win his first Gold Glove in the majors this season after being a three-time Gold Glove winner in the minors, which honors the best player at each position across all levels.

“We’re talking about a guy that played elite defense,” Shelton said. “I have a very strong opinion he should win a Gold Glove, if you guys are willing to write that.”

Shelton, however, said Arenado would be tough to beat because of the combination of his defensive prowess and his offensive production. An NL MVP candidate, Arenado slashed .293/.358/.533 with 42 doubles, 30 home runs and 103 RBIs for the NL Central champions. By comparison, Hayes batted .244 with a .659 OPS, 24 doubles, seven homers and 41 RBIs for the 100-loss Pirates.

Hayes was the only Pirates player to be named a Gold Glove finalist. Last year, the Pirates had an NL Gold Glove winner in catcher Jacob Stallings and finalists in shortstop Kevin Newman and center fielder Bryan Reynolds.