You couldn’t ask Derek Shelton a question about Jacob Stallings over the final month of the season without the Pirates’ skipper bringing up how his catcher deserved to win the Gold Glove. Down the stretch, he made a small part of his job the campaign manager to get Stallings the award he deserved.
On Sunday night, Stallings got his award.
“I don’t know that it’s totally sunk in,” Stallings said Sunday night. “It’s very cool. Obviously a dream come true.”
Stallings’ candidacy speaks for itself and is a product of his work ethic and willingness to experiment. After being designated for assignment in 2019, he dove into how to become a better pitch framer. Since being named the starter in 2020, he’s third in baseball in framing runs saved with 11.1 runs, per FanGraphs. This year, he focused on blocking and receiving. He caught 892 innings without a passed ball -- becoming the first NL catcher to do so since Johnny Bench in 1975 -- and blocked 94.8% of pitches in the dirt (647 block balls to 35 wild pitches).
While the Gold Gloves are determined 75% via coach vote, the other quarter is statistical. So while coaches ultimately have the final say, the statistical side helps make sure deserving candidates get recognition. And in that latter part, Stallings was by far the best at his position, and among the very best in the sport.
Rawlings uses SABR’s Defensive Index (SDI) for the statistical side. Stallings ranked first among all catchers at 9.2 SDI and second overall in the National League behind center field Gold Glover Harrison Bader of the Cardinals (14.4 SDI). That should put him in consideration for the Platinum Glove, though that is determined via a fan vote.
But SDI is not the be-all, end-all of defensive stats. The “best” defensive stat is, really, a matter of opinion, and the evolution of what’s best has evolved over time. That make comparing one defensive season to another in a different year difficult, but let’s give it a shot to see how Stallings’ Gold Glove campaign stacks up to other great defensive seasons.
We’ll start by sticking with SDI, which was first released to the public in 2013. Stallings graded out better defensively than most catchers who won the Gold Glove, with only six of the 18 grading out better than him:
Roberto Perez: 17 in 2019
J.T. Realmuto: 12 in 2019
Martin Maldonado, 14.1 in 2017
Tucker Barnhart: 10.4 in 2017
Buster Posey: 15.2 in 2016
Yadier Molina: 9.4 in 2013
And when it comes to Pirates over the past eight years, Stallings also ranks near the top. Here is everyone in that stretch who had at least 5 SDI:
Russell Martin: 10.3 in 2013, 8.7 in2014
Starling Marte: 9.2 in 2013, 7.4 in 2015, 6.4 in 2016, 6.4 in 2018
Andrew McCutchen: 5.8 in 2013
Jordy Mercer: 8.2 in 2014
Josh Harrison: 6.5 in 2014
David Freese: 9.5 in 2017
Corey Dickerson: 12.8 in 2018
Kevin Newman: 7 in 2021
Starling Marte and Corey Dickerson were the only Pirates players to win Gold Gloves during this time.
If you want to turn the clock back a bit further, Fielding Bible has been tracking defensive runs saved since 2002. In that time, even though he has only played the equivalent of two seasons as a starter, Stallings is already fourth all-time in DRS for the Pirates:
Working on a piece right now, but since 2002 (when defensive runs saved started being calculated) Stallings is already fourth all-time in DRS for the Pirates. He's done it in what's the equivalent of only about two seasons worth of innings.
— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) November 8, 2021
Oh, and hi, Ke'Bryan Hayes. pic.twitter.com/8BgDJqWMZ8
As far as individual seasons go, his 21 defensive saved were tied for the most in the majors with Carlos Correa. In Pirates history, it was tied for fourth with 2013 and 2014 Russell Martin. The only players who ever had a better defensive season by this metric were Jack Wilson (32 DRS in 2005 and 23 in 2009) and Marte (22 in 2015).
Stallings became just the third Pirate catcher to ever win the award, joining Tony Peña and Mike LaValliere. Comparing this trio is definitely the trickiest, though, because they won their awards in the 80s. The best case scenario is to ignore pitch framing -- which is a big part of Stallings’ defensive value -- and compare the other areas.
Going by Baseball Reference’s Defensive WAR, Peña was worth 1.3 dWAR in 1983, his first Gold Glove year, and 2.5 in each of his following two years where he won again. LaValliere had 1.4 dWAR in his award winning season in 1987.
Stallings was worth 2.3 dWAR, but that was over just 892 innings. Peña caught at least 1,270 innings each of his three years. Few players in franchise history racked up defensive value as quickly as Stallings.
One last chart: Here is the highest dWAR for Pirates players since 1900 who appeared in 120 or fewer games:
The only people ahead of Stallings are Wilson, who was traded that year, and Walter Schmidt, who I guess we could call Stallings from 100 years ago. That’s without pitch framing either. An argument can be made the extra innings as a catcher are more valuable, but if the goal is to make a positive impact defensively, Stallings was one of the best in franchise history.
Stallings’ win is good news for a Pirates team that needs breakthrough players like him in order to one day become a winning club. They have a Gold Glover behind the plate. Actually, they have one of the best defenders in franchise history behind there.