The saying goes that it's an honor just to be nominated.
That's all Jacob Stallings and Adam Frazier will be able to claim this year, as both fell short of winning a Gold Glove Tuesday. Tucker Barnhart of the Reds won for catchers, and former Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong captured his second straight award.
This year's awards were determined solely through statistics through the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR). Traditionally, the winners are determined 25% by statistics and 75% by a vote by coaches, but there was no coach vote this time since teams only played games within their division. Therefore, coaches did not get a chance to sample the defensive talent from across the league.
Going by the SABR Defensive Index (SDI), Stallings and Frazier both finished second in their bids for Gold Gloves. Barnhart had 4.7 SDI, Stallings 2.9 and fellow nominee Wilson Contreras (2.2). At second, Wong had 6.2 SDI, Frazier 3.4 and Nico Hoerner 2.4.
This was Frazier's second nomination and the second straight time he lost to Wong. Some metrics had Frazier as the superior defender, though, including Baseball Savant's outs above average (OAA). Frazier led all second basemen in that stat with six OAA.
A year ago, Stallings was designated for assignment because the Pirates didn't want to carry three catchers. He reinvented himself into one of the best pitch framers in the game by working extensively with bullpen catcher Jordan Comadena in 2019, developing a weighted ball program that all catchers in the organization have since adopted.
Stallings' framing was just one part of his value as a catcher, also grading as one of the best blockers and throwing out 33% of would-be base stealers. He was voted the Pirates' most valuable player by the Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
These figure to be the Pirates' only two award nominations, as no players were named among the BBWAA finalists Monday.