Kyle Seager Wins the Rawlings AL Gold Glove Award At Third Base

The Mariners had two Players Choice Award winners last night in Felix Hernandez and Chris Young. Tonight the hardware continued flowing to the Pacific Northwest.

Kyle Seager, a first time All-Star and hot corner commodity, won his first Rawlings AL Gold Glove award at third base.

Kyle Seager, who turned 27 yesterday, has been a pleasant surprise since he replaced Chone Figgins at third base for the Mariners back in 2012. Throughout his minor league days in the Mariners organization, he played third base, short stop, and second base. He was a 3rd round selection out of the University of North Carolina in the 2008 MLB First Year Player Draft.

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With a steady position and a spot in the middle of the Mariners lineup, Seager’s defensive numbers got better and better and his errors dwindled over the seasons.

In 2012 he commited 13 errors; in 2013, 15 errors. But in his Gold Glove winning season– that has a nice ring to it– he committed a meager 8 errors in 422 opportunities. He led the Mariners with 157 games played, all of them at third base.

But errors aren’t the only statistic that give credence to Seager’s award. The Fielding Bible says that Kyle Seager led all Major League third basemen with a 96.6-percent “good throw” rate– check out the Fielding Bible if you want details on the metric. He also led AL third basemen with a +24 defensive runs saved metric according to Baseball Reference.

To put it as simply as possible, Kyle Seager had a great defensive season and earned his first Rawlings AL Gold Glove award. Oftentimes Gold Gloves go to guys who aren’t necessarily deserving– ahem Derek Jeter— but it seems, at least at third base in the American League, the best defensive player earned the honor.

Congratulations to Kyle and oh, did I mention that Felix Hernandez was named an AL Cy Young Finalist today as well?

Looks like the Seattle Mariners will be adding some shelves to their trophy rooms this offseason. Maybe they’ll have to get a jewelry box sooner than later too.