Pittsburgh Pirates: Looking at Their Last Five Gold Glove Winners

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PITTSBURGH, PA – SEPTEMBER 28: Jacob Stallings #58 of the Pittsburgh Pirates in action during the game against the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park on September 28, 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images) /

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes could take home the Gold Glove, but who are the Pirates’ last five winners?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a Gold Glove finalist this year in Ke’Bryan Hayes. The third basemen led the entire league in defensive runs saved, ranked third in outs above average (also led his position), and it would be a travesty if Hayes didn’t win the award.

Although voters have become much more analytically intelligent over the past decade, it’s still not a guarantee that he will take home the award, which is sad, given how he leads his position in nearly every meaningful category. Plus, more analytically intelligent voters don’t mean 100% accurate voting. Juan Soto is somehow a finalist despite being in the bottom 1st percentile of outs above average.

If Hayes wins the award, he’ll be the 20th Pirate to ever take it home. In total, there have been 50 Pittsburgh Pirates Gold Gloves with Roberto Clemente owning a dozen of them. The franchise has seen their fair share of good defenders taking home the award, both deservingly and undeservingly, but who is the Pirates’ last five Gold Glove winners?

Jacob Stallings

Jacob Stallings won the most recent National League catcher Gold Glove. Last year, Stallings had a phenomenal year with the glove. He racked up +21 defensive runs saved, which was the most by any player in Major League Baseball. On top of that, Stallings’ framing was worth +8.8 runs, which was tied with Omar Narvaez and Jose Trevino for the third most in the sport. Overall, Stallings had a +2.2 defensive WAR.

Stallings’ competition this season included Yadier Molina and J.T. Realmuto. Molina had just +6 DRS and -2.0 framing runs, while Realmuto had +8.6 framing runs but zero DRS and a +.5 defensive WAR. Stallings was the clear-cut winner by a landslide, taking home the award and giving him arguably the biggest highlight of a career that at one point didn’t look like it was going anywhere.

Corey Dickerson

Corey Dickerson’s 2018 Gold Glove was utterly out of left field, no pun intended. The Pirates had acquired Dickerson for his bat, as he was a pretty mediocre defender up until ’18. During his tenure with the Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays, Dickerson had -8 defensive runs saved, -.8 UZR/150, and -5 outs above average.

After getting traded to the Pirates, Dickerson would go on to rack up +15 defensive runs saved, post an +11.9 UZR/150, and collect +9 outs above average. Dickerson absolutely deserved the award. He ranked second in DRS behind fellow finalist Adam Duvall, had the third-best UZR/150 in the league behind Alex Gordon and Kyle Schwarber, and led the position in outs above average. Duvall had +16 DRS, an 11.4 UZR/150, and +8 outs above average. Meanwhile, the other finalist, eventual MVP winner Christian Yelich had 0 DRS, -1 OAA, and -5.4 UZR/150.

Dickerson has pretty much gone back to his pre-2018 self defensively, having -12 DRS, +1 OAA, and -4.9 UZR/150. 2018 is a strange outlier for Dickerson. It’s not often you see a guy go from below average defensively to one of the best at his position with the leather and then revert back to his career norm immediately after.

Starling Marte

Starling Marte won two Gold Gloves back-to-back, and the second Gold Glove left fielder we’ll look at. His first was in 2015 when he had an impressive +22 defensive runs saved, a 10.2 UZR/150, and +1.7 dWAR. Marte was far and away the best defensive left fielder. Justin Upton was a finalist with just +7 DRS and +1.1 UZR/150. The other finalist was Christan Yelich, who had +12 DRS and a +.1 UZR/150.

Marte followed that up with another defensive clinic in the outfield grass. Marte didn’t reach the 20 DRS milestone again but still had +17. He also had a +7.3 UZR/150, but outs above average in its first year did not hold Marte in high regard at -2. Yelich was a finalist once again, having +2 DRS and a +6.4 UZR/150, but Adam Duvall was Marte’s real competition. He also had +17 DRS with a greater +9.8 UZR/150. Outs above average painted Duvall as the superior defender at +4, but with OAA in its infancy, it wasn’t a factor many voters took into account then, compared to how important it is now when analyzing a defender today.

The award is 2016 could have gone either way, but in the end, Marte took home his second Gold Glove award. Marte hasn’t won another Gold Glove since. He moved to center field in 2017 but wasn’t nearly as good defensively up the middle as he was in left. But you could have made a good case he should have at least been a finalist in right field this year for the New York Mets, the first time he’s ever played right field.

Andrew McCutchen

Andrew McCutchen has taken home just a single Gold Glove coming in his 2012 season. This was the start of a phenomenal stretch of seasons for the all-time great Pirate outfielder. It certainly wasn’t McCutchen’s best outfield showing, though, with -6 defensive runs saved and a -3.5 UZR/150. He was far from the worst defensive center fielder, but surprisingly, he took home the award when there were far superior defenders, both with the eye test and defensive metrics.

The National League leader for outfield defensive runs saved Michael Bourn, collected +23, yet fell behind McCutchen. Bourn also had a +16 UZR/150. Drew Stubbs, the other finalist, had just +1 DRS but a +10 UZR/150. Even in an era when more advanced metrics were just gaining traction, Bourn only made one more error than McCutchen, so it should not have been that much of a deciding factor.

Nate McLouth

Nate McLouth somehow won a Gold Glove in 2008. Strangely enough, he was one of the league’s worst defenders. Of course, this was an era before voters started to consider more advanced and more accurate defensive metrics heavily. Defensive runs saved were created just five years prior, and ultimate zone rating wasn’t much older at six years. Outs above average wouldn’t become a stat for another eight seasons.

Despite that, McLouth had -23 defensive runs saved, the third-fewest in all of baseball. He was far from the worst defender in terms of UZR/150, but -12.3 is nothing to be proud of. McLouth had a -2.1 defensive WAR that season, making it one of the worst defensive seasons to win a Gold Glove ever.

Next. Prospect Season in Review: Abrahan Gutierrez. dark

Three National League center fielders, including Carlos Beltran, Cody Ross, and Shane Victorino, racked up double-digit positives in defensive runs saved. Both Beltran and Ross were in the double-digit positives of UZR/150 as well. The only explanation that could possibly be given is that he had the highest fielding percentage among players with 1000+ innings played in center field, committing just a single error and having a .997 FP. Of course, knowing what we know today of how inaccurate errors are, something like this will probably never happen again.

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