This morning Rawlings and Major League Baseball announced the 2025 Gold Glove finalists at each position. The Cincinnati Reds had two players named as finalists at their position. At third base Ke’Bryan Hayes made the list and over across the infield at first base it was Spencer Steer being among the finalist group at his position.
At third base in the National League the finalists along with Ke’Bryan Hayes are Matt Shaw of the Chicago Cubs and Ryan McMahon of the Colorado Rockies/New York Yankees (he was traded for at the deadline by the Yankees). Let’s take a look at how the players stack up from the defensive side of things based on publicly available defensive metrics.
FRVOAAFG_DEFBR_DEFKe’Bryan Hayes172119.22.4Ryan McMahon768.21.2Matt Shaw-1-11.51.4
No matter which metric you look at, Ke’Bryan Hayes is far and away ahead of the other two finalist. Baseball Savant’s Fielding Run Value and Outs Above Average, as well as Fangraphs Defensive Value has Hayes more than twice as valuable as McMahon, and two of those three actually have Shaw as a not-good defender. Baseball Reference’s defensive value has Hayes twice as valuable as McMahon and nearly twice as valuable as Shaw – and it’s also the only metric that thinks Shaw is actually a good defender.
If one were to look only at the numbers, then it feels that this should be an easy decision. Of course if one watches the video, it probably feels the same way. When the Reds acquired Hayes from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline the selling point was that he was an elite defender. He showed that and more in the final two months of the season with Cincinnati (and in the first four months with the Pirates).
At first base Spencer Steer was joined by Atlanta’s Matt Olson and the Phillies Bryce Harper on the list of finalists. Let’s take a look at how the publicly available metrics view these three players.
FRVOAAFG_DEFBR_DEFSpencer Steer46-2.98Matt Olson89-4.217Bryce Harper-11-8.0-3
In three of the four metrics Matt Olson comes out on top. Unlike the other two guys, Olson played every single day at first base. Literally. He started all 162 games at first base this season. Steer spent time at other spots on the field throughout the year and Harper served as the designated hitter at times with Philadelphia. Both Steer and Olson look strong in all categories – of note, though, the Fangraphs defensive values do have the positional adjustment added in and that every single first baseman in the game was negative in defensive value because the penalty is enormous simply by playing first base. Steer’s -2.9 value in the Fangraphs listing was 2nd best in baseball at the position and tops in the National League.
This grouping is a bit like the one at third – two guys who grade out quite well and then a third guy where you struggle to figure out how they are a finalist because the numbers don’t exactly stack up with the other two. But at least Harper is among the top half of defenders at his position on the numbers side – he just doesn’t come close to the other two guys here.
We’re going to have to wait two-and-a-half weeks to learn who the winners are. Those will be announced on Sunday November 2nd on ESPN.
If Steer or Hayes pick up a Gold Glove this year it will be the first time since 2020 that a Reds player has won one. Tucker Barnhart had two with Cincinnati, with the first coming in 2017 and the other in 2020. Barnhart is the only Reds player to win a Gold Glove in the last decade.
