Indians come up empty in 2017 Gold Glove Awards

The Cleveland Indians entered today with rou4 Gold Glove Awards finalists, but they finished no hardware. Shortstop Francisco Lindor, third baseman Jose Ramirez, catcher Yan Gomes, and first baseman Carlos Santana all came away empty handed and at least one of them is a major upset.

I’m referring of course to Carlos Santana losing the award at first base. The mere act of losing it wasn’t terrible — Santana was good, but there were a few others who deserved the award, such as Mitch Moreland, one of the other three finalists at the position. But it wasn’t Mooreland who won, and it wasn’t Joe Mauer, who probably deserved to be a finalist as well but wasn’t. No, it was Eric f’ing Hosmer.

Despite being one of the worst overall defenders at first base in 2017, Hosmer came away with his fourth Gold Glove Award. According to Defensive Runs Saved, Hosmer cost the Kansas City Royals seven runs in 2017. Great if you’re a fan of literally other team and can’t stand the Royals, bad if you’re a first baseman trying to justify winning an award. Over his seven years playing first base, Hosmer has been worth -21 Defensive Runs Saved. Again, four Gold Gloves. Awards totally aren’t meaningless, you guys.

The full list of winners are as follows and will be updated as more as announced:

American League

C: Martin Maldonado, LAA
1B: Eric Hosmer, KC
2B: Brian Dozier, MIN
SS: Andrelton Simmons, LAA
3B: Evan Longoria, TBA
LF: Alex Gordon, KC
CF: Byron Buxton, MIN
RF: Mookie Betts, BOS

National League

C: Tucker Barnhart, CIN
1B: Paul Goldschmidt, AZ
2B: DJ LeMaheiu, COR
SS: Brandon Crawford, SF
3B: Nolen Arenado, COR
LF: Marcell Ozuna, MIA
CF: Ender Inciarte, ATL
RF: Jason Heyward, CHC

Lindor and Ramirez losing kind of sucks, but it’s not terribly unexpected. Andrelton Simmons is an otherworldly wizard at shortstop, and Evan Longoria quietly had another great defensive season at the hot corner.

ERIC HOSMER?