Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles was named a finalist for a 2015 Rawlings Gold Glove yesterday. We’ll find out next month whether or not he wins. While Machado committed a career-high 21 errors this past season, he still had a fine season in the field and the nomination is very well deserved. Incidentally, two of those errors occurred at shortstop.
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Many of those errors occurred early in the season for Machado, who along with various other Orioles seemingly struggled to find his sea legs a bit. However once he got going we all know what he did in the field. While the actual number of errors in the games may well have been elevated, his 3.09 range factor per nine innings was tops in the American League among third baseman in 2015.
Machado joins Texas’ Beltre and Tampa’s Longoria as the American League’s nominees for the Gold Glove. He’s also the Orioles’ lone nominee, breaking a stread that’s gone on since 2011 where the Birds have had multiple players nominated. It’s no surprise that Wieters didn’t get nominated at catcher given that he only played half the season at best. However the fact that Jones and Hardy weren’t nominated is a bit of a head scratcher.

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Both had great seasons in the field, although Hardy struggled at the plate. There’s little doubt that these types of awards are tough to decide upon, however it’s just surprising to me that these players weren’t finalists. Can’t win them all I suppose!
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