Royals’ Alex Gordon wins franchise record-tying 8th Gold Glove on way into retirement
Alex Gordon cemented his legacy as the best defensive outfielder in Kansas City Royals history and tied Frank White’s franchise-record with an eighth Rawlings Gold Glove Award in his final season.
The Rawlings Gold Glove Awards were announced on Tuesday night in a telecast on ESPN. Gordon, who announced his retirement in September after 14 seasons with the Royals, won his fourth consecutive award as the American League’s best defensive left fielder.
Royals second baseman Nicky Lopez was also a finalist, but Lopez was beat out for the AL Gold Glove by Cleveland Indians second baseman César Hernández.
All four finalists came from the AL Central Division. Chicago White Sox’ Danny Mendick and the Detroit Tigers’ Jonathan joined Lopez and Hernández as contenders for the honor.
A former No. 2 overall draft pick (2005) who has described himself as a failed third baseman turned left fielder, Gordon began his professional career playing at Double-A in the minors with the former legendary infielder White as his manager.
“It has never been my goal to win awards or anything like that,” Gordon said. “I think that just comes as icing on the cake with all the hard work you put in. … Frank White was my first coach in 2006 in Double-A. It’s kind of special to share that award with him. That definitely means a lot to me, just with what he did in his career. To share that honor with him, I’ll always cherish that.”
Gordon, 36, became the the third position player to win the Gold Glove in his final major-league season, according to Sportradar. He joined outfielder Roberto Clemente and first baseman Wes Parker, who both won in 1972.
Gordon admitted winning this year was “more of a surprise than other years,” and he doubted whether he’d played well enough or played as many games in the pandemic-shortened season — he played in 50 of the 60 — to garner his eighth Gold Glove.
Fittingly, he has just the right amount of room remaining alongside his other honors for one more tribute to his defensive excellence.
“I have one more spot on my shelf in the trophy room,” Gordon said. “It makes sense that I walked away. Otherwise if I had won another one, I would have been all jammed up with where to put it. This one is going to fit in there perfectly, and it’s time to call it quits.”
Gordon beat out Toronto’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Houston’s Kyle Tucker for the honor. Gordon has been the lone player named a finalist each year since Rawlings started announcing finalists at each position in 2011.
Gordon ranked first among AL left fielders in first in ultimate zone rating (UZR, 3.1), third in defensive runs saved (one), third in outfield assists (four) and had the fourth-most putouts (81).
Traditionally, winners have been decided by a vote of the 30 managers from the respective MLB clubs and up to six members of their respective coaching staffs. In 2013, Rawlings added a sabermetric component to the process, which has comprised approximately 25 percent of the overall selection total.
However, this season’s winners were based on the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Defensive Index which combines defensive metrics based on batted ball location-based data as well as play-by-play data via MLB Statcast, Sports Information Solutions and STATS, LLC.
“I think just winning the Gold Glove period means a lot, whether it’s voting by your peers or coaches or winning by the stats and electronics,” Gordon said. “I think anyway you look at it, if you walk away with one of those awards, one of those Gold Gloves, you can know that you had a pretty successful season and you did something special. Either way, I’d be happy with it.”
A Platinum Glove winner in 2014, Gordon finished his career with an MLB-best 102 outfield assists from 2010-20. He trails only Amos Otis (116) for most in Royals history.
Gordon committed just 15 errors in 2,731 total chances from 2011-20. His .995 fielding percentage ranked second in the majors to Atlanta’s Nick Markakis (.996).
Gordon made just one error in 500 chances from June 25, 2018 through this year’s season finale on Sept. 27.
Lopez, who made his MLB debut in 2019, was named a finalist for the first time in his career.
Lopez led all second basemen with eight defensive runs saved and ranked second in putouts (74), assists (135) and double plays turned (34), as well as third in UZR (1.4).
The Royals have won an MLB-best 18 Rawlings Gold Glove Awards since 2011, and they’re the only AL team with at least one winner in each of the last 10 seasons.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Royals’ Alex Gordon wins franchise record-tying 8th Gold Glove on way into retirement."
