3 Cleveland Guardians with a shot at an AL Gold Glove award

The Cleveland Guardians have three potential AL Gold Glove winners.

They say pitching wins championships, offense wins games, and great defenses are actually the most important thing in baseball. To be fair, if you can’t field a ball, it really doesn’t matter how good your pitching is or how dynamic your offense is, you can ruin a lot of great games with poor fielding.

After all, no pitcher in MLB history (or maybe even in the history of the game), has ever thrown an 81-pitch, perfect game before. So eventually, someone is going to put the ball on the field. If you can’t field it, you’re screwed. It’s a notion that is often taken for granted but the Guardians have a few players that remind us all the time just how valuable defense is. Looking at you Oscar Gonzalez.

Luckily though, guys like Gonzalez and Owen Miller aren’t the norm on the Guardians roster and they are actually rocking three guys who are likely, if not the favorites, to win the American League Gold Glove for their positions.

Three Cleveland Guardians who can win AL Gold Gloves

CF Myles Straw

Even though Myles Straw has struggled at the plate for most of the year, he has become the Guardians’ most reliable fielder over the last year and a half. He’s almost automatic and his ability to get after balls would normally drop into the alleys in between center and left or right and the gap between the outfield and infield. He reminds me of Jim Edmunds, without the obnoxious need to dive into walls all the time.

LF Steven Kwan

Someone having a great defensive season, on top of an already great rookie season at the plate, is the top dog of the rookie’s Steven Kwan. While Gonzalez has gotten people to fall in love with his burgeoning power, Kwan is the complete package. He’s among all the league leaders at his position for every top defensive stat in the game and is a front runner to walk away with his first Gold Glove in his first Major League season.

2B Andres Gimenez

Kwan and Straw are almost certain at getting a Gold Glove this year. Andres Gimenez, on the other hand, has a bit more work to do to get to he the front of the line for second basemen. Gimenez’s numbers are very, very good. That’s not in dispute but Rangers second basemen Marcus Semien is on top of most of the statistical categories that Gimenez would need to sway voters. This is not a stat-based award, necessarily, so that doesn’t mean Gimenez is out of the running, but unlike Kwan and Straw, Gimenez has the most to overcome.