Article: The Blue Jays Have Tough Competition for This Year’s Gold Glove Team Award

[Leo Morgenstern]

The Gold Glove Team Award was introduced in 2020 to recognize, in the words of Rawlings, “the best team defense over the course of the regular season.” 

Unlike the individual Gold Gloves, this award is determined solely by the SABR Defensive Index (SDI). The exact formula for the SDI is not publicly available, but according to Rawlings, “The SDI draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts. SDI utilizes MLBAM’s Statcast, Sports Information Solutions data, and STATS, LLC data, as well as traditional statistics with advanced analysis.”

The Toronto Blue Jays have been lucky enough to win the AL Gold Glove Team Award in each of the past two seasons. They’re the only AL club to have won more than once. 

It’s no secret how highly the Blue Jays value defense. This year alone, they’ve acquired four Gold Glove winners: second baseman Andrés Giménez, center fielder Myles Straw, utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and starter Shane Bieber. I’ll concede that Ross Atkins probably wasn’t thinking much about Bieber’s glove when he acquired the former Cy Young winner, but defense is certainly the number one asset that Giménez, Straw, and Kiner-Falefa bring to the table. 

[Related: Andrés Giménez Is Going To Lose the Gold Glove on a Technicality]

The Blue Jays also had defense in mind when they traded for Daulton Varsho three years ago, when they extended Alejandro Kirk earlier this season, and when they brought Tyler Heineman back into the organization for a third time last September. (As for why Bo Bichette is still an everyday shortstop? Uh… well… I guess there’s an exception that proves every rule.)

In 2023, a Blue Jays defense led by Kevin Kiermaier and Matt Chapman paced the American League in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR). 

They only ranked third in Fielding Run Value (FRV) and fifth in Outs Above Average (OAA) – and third in fielding percentage, for those who prefer more traditional stats – but their lead in DRS was so enormous that they cruised to the Gold Glove Team Award at the end of the season. 

DRS estimated that the Blue Jays’ defenders saved their club 85 runs more than an average group of players would have. No other team even came within half of that number. The Rangers ranked second with 35 DRS. (More on the Rangers momentarily…)

In 2024, the Blue Jays led the Junior Circuit in DRS once again, this time with 102. They also led the AL in FRV and ranked fourth in OAA. Their fielding percentage was fourth-worst, but evidently, that didn’t matter (despite Rawlings’s claim that “traditional statistics” are also included in the SDI). Once again, the Jays earned Gold Glove honours.

Now, the question is whether the Blue Jays can make it three in a row. 

As far as Baseball Savant’s FRV is concerned, the Blue Jays have a case. Their 39 FRV is nine runs better than that of the Rangers in second place. However, Toronto only ranks fifth with 10 OAA. Why the huge difference? Because catcher defense isn’t included in OAA, and Baseball Savant loves what Kirk and Heineman have done behind the plate this year.

The Blue Jays’ 42 DRS is right in line with their 39 FRV. DRS isn’t quite as high on Kirk, but it’s even higher on Heineman, and it absolutely loves Straw and Ernie Clement.

Unfortunately, the Blue Jays aren’t leading the league in DRS. Not even close. You could double their DRS and they’d still be trailing the Rangers, who lead the AL (and MLB) with 97 DRS. The difference between the Rangers in first place and the Blue Jays in second is 55 runs. Texas’s top three defensive players, Corey Seager (16 DRS), Adolis García (16 DRS), and Wyatt Langford (11 DRS), have combined for more DRS than the entire Blue Jays roster.

We know the SDI considers data from Baseball Savant (the home of OAA and FRV) and Sports Info Solutions (the home of DRS), as well as other sources of both traditional and advanced metrics. But that’s all we know. 

All 10 clubs that have won the Gold Glove Team Award in its brief history have ranked top-three in their league in both DRS and FRV. So, it’s safe to presume the Blue Jays’ lead in FRV will work in their favor. It’s also fair to worry that the Rangers are a lot closer to the Blue Jays in FRV than the Blue Jays are to the Rangers in DRS. 

Keep in mind, however, that the White Sox lost the Gold Glove Team Award to the Guardians in 2020 despite leading the AL in both DRS and FRV. The same thing happened to the Rangers (who lost to the Astros) in 2021.

All that to say, the SDI formula is clearly more complicated than just mashing together a few metrics.

That means the Blue Jays are very much in the running to win their third consecutive Gold Glove Team Award. But the Rangers are going to give them some stiff competition, and we can’t count out the Red Sox (31 DRS, 24 FRV), Guardians (32 DRS, 23 FRV), or Royals (24 DRS, 17 FRV) either. The Blue Jays have a terrific defense, but they aren't the only team that does.

Stats updated prior to games on September 11.

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