Lorenzo Cain: How Is He Not A Gold Glove Finalist

Glove-maker Rawlings announced their finalists for gold gloves at every position in both leagues this afternoon. One startling fact is that Kansas City Royals breakout star Lorenzo Cain is not even on the finalist list for CF.

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How in the heck can that be?

Lorenzo Cain has shown all of America his prowess in centerfield. He’s made spectacular catch after spectacular catch, showing off his range on balls hit over his head, balls hit to either gap, and balls hit in front of him. How are Adam Jones, Adam Eaton, and Jackie Bradley, Jr. more worthy than Lorenzo Cain?

Modern defensive metrics shows that the whole gold glove process is hopelessly archaic.

If you look at the A.L. list of CFs ranked by Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) , you will see Jackie Bradley Jr. and Adam Jones relatively high on the list. However, you will see Kansas City reserve Jarrod Dyson at the top of the list over Bradley, despite playing almost 300 fewer innings in CF.

Lorenzo Cain checks in at 5th, despite only logging 723.1 innings in center, far fewer than Bradley’s 949.0, Jones’ 1368.1, and Eaton’s 1043.2. The craziest inclusion is Eaton, who is seen as a below-average fielder according to UZR with a rating of -1.6.

Now, Dyson is a reserve, so I can see his exclusion. But, how do you leave off the spectacular orenzo Cain?

Kansas City Royals center fielder

Jarrod Dyson

(1) Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

The answer lies in the fact that Cain has hurt himself by being a team player. While Cain is a starter, he moves to right field when Royals manager Ned Yost replaces Nori Aoki for defense. Jarrod Dyson comes into the game at center, while Lorenzo Cain moves to right—which limited his CF innings.

Consequently, Lorenzo Cain failed to “qualify” for enough innings to be seen as a centerfield starter.

Cain is also a victim of Rawlings policy change in 2011, which awarded gold gloves to outfielders that qualified at each position, rather than choosing the top 3 defensive outfielders in the given league. The latter rule usually led to all 3 gold gloves getting awarded to centerfielders, which did not reflect how players deployed in the field.

While this adjustment seems sensible to me—and led to Alex Gordon getting recognized in LF—it has cost Cain because he played multiple positions to help the team. It’s not as if Cain were moved off center due to poor play. A big part of the reason for Cain moving to right is that he has a better arm than Dyson, which makes him a better fit in right field.

The end result is that the group that Grantland.com calls “The Ultimate Outfield” finds two of its members disqualified for gold glove consideration—despite being a contender for best defensive outfield of all time.

However, I doubt Lorenzo Cain or Jarrod Dyson are smarting over this slight. The Royals are in the World Series, and they’re showing the whole baseball world what they can do in the field.

I’m sure both Cain and Dyson would much rather bring a World Series trophy to Kansas City than put a gold glove on their mantle.

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Lorenzo Cain: How Is He Not A Gold Glove Finalist For Kansas City Royals

By John Viril | Oct 23, 2014