Photo via Brice Turang - Instagram
Brice Turang
Brice Turang
The 2024 Milwaukee Brewers had already had one of the most successful seasons in franchise history before they tacked on one more accomplishment on Sunday night.
Before this weekend the Brewers only had six players that had won a Gold Glove across their 50+ year history: George Scott (five times), Cecil Cooper (twice), Sixto Lezcano, Robin Yount, Carlos Gomez and Lorenzo Cain, and only two of those had won the award in the prior 41 seasons. On Sunday night they matched that count as both of their finalists, Sal Frelick and Brice Turang, won the award for 2024.
This is just the second time in franchise history the Brewers have had two Gold Glovers in the same season and the first since Cooper and Lezcano both won in 1979. The fact that Turang and Frelick were even finalists demonstrates how the awards have changed over time: For most of the history of the award voters didn’t have access to defensive metrics or high -quality video, and so Gold Gloves were largely handed out based on reputation and past performance. In that era Frelick and Turang might actually have been excluded from Gold Glove consideration because they didn’t hit enough.
Measures and Metrics
Today, however, award voters and fans alike have access to an ever-expanding array of measures and metrics to help compare players’ defensive contributions. While they used to be left to rely on the eye test and consensus opinions to attempt to estimate a player’s defensive value, today there are statistics turning a player’s defensive contributions directly into run value and breaking them down by the variety of skills required (range, fielding, throwing) required to be a good defender. In the case of the 2024 Brewers we know that Turang and Frelick add most of their value through exceptional range, for example, which makes sense for players who developed as a shortstop and center fielder, respectively, and are playing further down the defensive spectrum at second base and a corner spot.
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The ever-improving set of tools for evaluating defenders, however, makes it a challenge to compare defense across eras. While we certainly have some video and eyewitness reports of teams like the aforementioned 1979 team with its pair of Gold Glove winners, it’s difficult to compile the level of data necessary to make the kind of assessment routinely seen today. It’s worth noting that the historic metrics suggest the 2024 Brewers were far superior defensively to the ’79 team: Total Zone Rating, which determines the number of plays a fielder makes per nine innings and can be calculated for historic teams, suggests this year’s Brewers were 48 runs better than the average team defensively. The 1979 Brewers were just six runs above average. It’s worth noting that both of the Brewers’ Gold Glovers that year, Cooper and Lezcano, actually grade out below average by this measure.
It’s somewhat easier to compare the 2024 Brewers to their more modern peers. FanGraphs tracks defensive run values for teams dating back to 2002 and allows more of an apples-to-apples comparison between teams. Here, by their measure, are the top three defensive Brewers teams of that era:
2018, +39.1 runs
It’s reasonable to expect that the best Brewers defense in modern history would be built around its most decorated center fielder: Lorenzo Cain did not win a Gold Glove for this season (he got it in 2019), but he was one of the best defenders in baseball with an estimated 17.3 runs above average in center field and an array of highlight reel plays to back it up. Perhaps more surprisingly, FanGraphs estimates the Brewers’ second and third most valuable defenders were both catchers as Manny Pina and Erik Kratz combined to give the Crew over 26 runs of defensive value.
2023, +31.9 runs
Speaking of high value defensive backstops, one of 2023’s top stories was the defensive breakout of previously questionable catcher William Contreras. FanGraphs suggests he was worth nearly two dozen runs behind the plate this season after costing the Braves several runs back there in 2022. The Brewers were also strong up the middle this season with a star-level defensive performance from Willy Adames and additional significant contributions from second catcher Victor Caratini, second basemen Owen Miller and Brice Turang and center fielders Joey Wiemer and Blake Perkins.
2024, +29.8 runs
While the two teams above got most of their value from one or two exceptional performers, the 2024 Brewers came to their defensive value by having players who graded out above average nearly everywhere all the time. FanGraphs estimates William Contreras was the Brewers’ most valuable defender again this season but with just 11.4 runs of value back there, while Joey Ortiz was right behind him with eleven runs at third base. It’s worth noting that by FanGraphs’ measure the Brewers’ pair of Gold Glove winners, Turang and Frelick, were actually only their fifth and seventh most valuable defenders, respectively.
