Major League Baseball and Rawlings have announced the lists for the finalists for the 2020 Rawlings Gold Glove award. The Kansas City Royals have two finalists for the award.
The award, given to the best fielder in baseball, has three finalists at each position, except for American League second base and National League right field with four finalists. The award will be presented to the winner on Tuesday, November 3rd.
Left fielder Alex Gordon, whose won the award seven times in his career, will be seeking his eighth award, which would tie him with Royals great Frank White for the most in Royals history. Gordon announced his retirement at the end of last season
The award in the American League for second base has four finalists, all of which will be first time winners if given the award, all from the American League Central. The Royals Nicky Lopez joins the Indians Ceasar Hernandez, the Tigers Jonathan Schoop, and the White Sox Danny Mendick. Lopez led the American League second baseman with eight defensive runs saved during this past season
In the National League the Cardinals have three finalists. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt is once again competing with the Cubs Anthony Rizzo for the award. Either Goldschmidt or Rizzo have won the award in six of the past seven years. This would be Goldschmidt's fourth Gold Glove, his first since joining the Cardinals
Much like in the American League, the National League second base award will also be awarded to someone from the National League Central as the Cardinals Kolten Wong is up against Adam Frazier of the Pirates and Nico Hoerner of the Cubs. Wong is the reigning Gold Glove winner, which was his first time winning.
Tyler O Neill finally got his opportunity to be an everyday starter for the Cardinals in 2020 and in doing so got the opportunity to show off his defensive ability in left field. O'Neill is up for the award for the first time in his three years in the major leagues, leading all National League left fielders with nine defensive runs saved, but did not record any outfield assists.