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Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain Win Wilson Defense Awards

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They just keep coming in. More defensive awards for the Kansas City Royals. This time it was Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon winning Wilson Defense Awards in center and left field.

The Wilson Defense Awards are different from the Gold Glove awards which does its voting more on the eye test and traditional defensive statistics. While they won’t admit it they also take into account who won the award the previous year and how the finalist offensive numbers were. Just look back to 1999 when Rafael Palmeiro won the Gold Glove at first base despite only starting 28 games there.

Gordon winning the award should come as no surprise. Gordon just won his fourth straight Gold Glove in left field this year. Gordon is a good example of the award using advanced defensive metrics as standard stats don’t do Gordon justice. Gordon finished fifth in outfield assists this year with eight, down from his yearly average of 18 when he won his first three Gold Gloves. However Gordon led all left fielders with 27 defensive runs saved, 14 more than the next closest, Christian Yelich. Gordon’s UZR of 25.0 was also 12 points higher than Yelich’s 12.8 and beat out Yelich in RngR (Range Runs) 17.2 to 13.1.

Cain was a fantastic outfielder this year and made highlight reel play after highlight reel play. The argument though that Juan Lagares should have won the award is completely valid. No award system is perfect and it certainly seems that Cain’s outstanding play in the postseason on a national stage that also propelled him into that level of other star players played a critical factor in Cain receiving this award.

Atlanta Braves right fielder Jason Heyward who led all of baseball with 32 defensive runs saved is the Overall Defensive Player of the Year.

Another slight surprise came with the Cincinnati Reds being named Defensive Team of the Year. The Royals and Baltimore Orioles were thought to be the clear favorites to win the award. The Reds did finish in first place with 67 defensive runs saved. The Royals however led all of baseball by a comfortable margin in both UZR (61.1) and RngR (54.5) and finished fourth in defensive runs saved (40) while the Reds finished fourth and sixth respectively.

Complete listings of the award winners and reactions can be found here on MLB.com.

Author: Rudy Salazar

Kansas City Royals Beat Writer for The Runner Sports. Born in Kansas. Senior Journalism student at the University of Kentucky. #BBN

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