For the first time since 1979, the Brewers have multiple Gold Glove winners
The Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners were announced this evening, and given that the Brewers had three finalists, fans of the team had to feel pretty good about seeing one of their guys win one. But for the first time since Cecil Cooper and Sixto Lezcano both won in 1979, the Brewers won two.
Brice Turang was named the Gold Glove winner at second base and Sal Frelick was named the winner in right field. Blake Perkins, who was a finalist in center field, did not win.
Turang was viewed as the favorite at second base, and while Frelick was perhaps not a super obvious choice in right field, the defensive metrics all suggested he was better than the other two finalists, Jake McCarthy and Mike Yastrzemski.
Perkins was a long shot in center field given that he didn’t have the playing time that the other finalists did. It was a bit of an upset that the reigning winner, Brenton Doyle, retained his award over the Nationals’ Jacob Young, who was by some measures the best defensive outfielder in baseball.
Turang and Frelick are just the 12th and 13th Gold Glove winners in franchise history. Five of those belong to first baseman George Scott, who won the award in every one of his seasons in Milwaukee (from 1972-76). In addition to those and the ones won by Cooper and Lezcano in 1979, Cooper won another in 1980, Robin Yount won at shortstop in 1982, and Carlos Gómez and Lorenzo Cain won in center field in 2013 and 2019, respectively.
Turang and Frelick will now be eligible for the Platinum Glove Award, which is awarded to the Gold Glove winner deemed to be the best in their respective league via fan voting. If you’d like to vote, you may do so at Rawlings’ website. The winner (and the Team Gold Glove Awards) will be announced on November 8.