Corey Dickerson Named A Gold Glove Award Finalist

On Thursday, the 2018 Gold Glove Award finalists were announced in both the National and American Leagues and one member of the Pittsburgh Pirates has made the cut

When the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Corey Dickerson from the Tampa Bay Rays for Daniel Hudson and Tristan Gray, there were question marks around his defensive ability. During his time in Tampa, Dickerson spent plenty of time as a designated hitter and for good reason.

His defensive ability was one of the few question marks surrounded Dickerson when the Pirates acquired him from the Rays in March. Dickerson, however, proved naysayers wrong with the defensive season he had in 2018. And his defensive efforts in 2018 has led to him being named a finalist for a National League Gold Glove Award in left field.

Dickerson is one of three finalists for the award. Joining him are Adam Duvall who started the season with the Cincinnati Reds before being traded to the Atlanta Braves, and likely NL MVP Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers.

While Yelich is likely to win the award, that does not take away from the defensive season that Dickerson had. In 135 games played during the 2018 season, Dickerson led all NL left fielders with eight Outs Above Average. Dickerson also had seven outfield assists which was tied for the second most among NL left fielders, and his +16 defensive runs saved also ranked second among NL left fielders. These were all new career bests for Dickerson.

Dickerson also posted a new career best in dWAR at 3.0. In fact, 2018 was the first time in Dickerson’s six-year MLB career that he rated out as a positive defender. This was a big reason why he posted the second highest fWAR of his career at 2.7.

While the odds are Dickerson will not win the NL left field Gold Glove, he was deserving of being named a finalist. And, for that, we say congrats, Corey!