Photo: Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire

We spend most of the year in these newsletters talking up defensive excellence across baseball. Now, we’re nearing time to reward those who were most excellent in 2024.

This is the second of two previews for The Fielding Bible Awards, which will be announced later this month. Last week we previewed the infield and catcher positions.

The Fielding Bible Awards are voted on by a panel of experts who can vote based on whatever criteria they choose, including observation and subjective judgement, as well as statistical analysis. Each position has one overall winner, different from the Gold Gloves which has one in each league.

This week, Part II of our preview looks at outfielders, multi-position players, and pitchers from the perspective of the Fielding Bible Awards favorites, Gold Glove favorites, and Fielding Bible contenders.

Defensive Runs Saved totals in parentheses, though contenders and winners are determined by vote, not statistical leadership.

Left Field

Fielding Bible Award Favorite: Riley Greene (14) 

NL Gold Glove Favorite: Ian Happ (8)

AL Gold Glove Favorite: Greene

Fielding Bible Award Top Contenders: Wyatt Langford (12), Steven Kwan (10), Brandon Marsh (7)

Greene, who moved to left field with the emergence of Parker Meadows, starred there, finishing second at the position in the range component of Defensive Runs Saved and boosted his total with 3 home run robberies.

Wyatt Langford, who won September’s co-Defensive Player of the Month, two-time Fielding Bible Award winner Kwan, and two-time Gold Glove winner Happ should be his toughest competition, as each has a formidable resume as well. 

Center Field

Fielding Bible Award Favorites: Jarren Duran (17), Daulton Varsho (16)

NL Gold Glove Favorites:  Jacob Young (12), Brenton Doyle (11)

AL Gold Glove Favorites: Varsho, Duran

Fielding Bible Award Top Contenders: Michael A. Taylor (12), Jose Siri (12), Pete Crow-Armstrong (11), Michael Harris (11)

It’s a crowded field for the top honor in center field as 10 players finished the season with at least 10 Runs Saved (the most in a season dating back to the first season for Runs Saved, 2003).

Varsho and Duran finished as the position leaders in Runs Saved, but both played considerably fewer innings than others there. Among those who played a lot, Siri, Young, and Doyle—who was last year’s runner-up for the Fielding Bible Award and won a Gold Glove— have reasonable shots at winning. Siri was not named a Gold Glove finalist. 

Right Field

Fielding Bible Award Favorites: Wilyer Abreu (17), Sal Frelick (16)

NL Gold Glove Favorite: Frelick

AL Gold Glove Favorite: Abreu

Fielding Bible Award Top Contenders: Jo Adell (6), Mike Yastrzemski (5)

As far as the Fielding Bible Award goes, this seems to be a two-person race. Abreu and Frelick were neck-and-neck in Runs Saved. Frelick led right fielders in the range component of Runs Saved with Abreu right behind him. Abreu led the position in Outfield Arm Runs Saved, with a 4-run advantage over Frelick.

Pitcher

Fielding Bible Award Favorites: Tanner Bibee (6), Jake Irvin (6), Spencer Schwellenbach (5) 

NL Gold Glove Favorite:  Zack Wheeler (3)

AL Gold Glove Favorite: Seth Lugo (5)

Fielding Bible Award Top Contenders: Griffin Canning (5), Ranger Suárez (5), Chris Sale (4), Cole Ragans (3)

This is another position with a lot of good candidates, with nine pitchers tallying at least 5 Runs Saved. Bibee and Irvin led the way. Both not only fielded their positions well, they also limited stolen bases. Bibee yielded 6 in 12 attempts and also had 4 pickoffs. Irvin allowed 5 in 9 attempts and had no pickoffs.

Schwellenbach did not have enough innings pitched to qualify for the Gold Glove Award and Irvin was not voted to be one of the three finalists, thus taking arguably two of the top candidates out of that field. They did both qualify for the Fielding Bible Award, surpassing the 125 innings (or 5 Runs Saved) necessary for consideration.

Multi-Position

Fielding Bible Award Favorites: Daulton Varsho (28), Jarren Duran (23), Isiah Kiner-Falefa (15)

NL Utility Gold Glove Favorite: Jared Triolo (7)

AL Utility Gold Glove Favorite:  Mauricio Dubon (6)

Fielding Bible Award Top Contenders: Kiké Hernández (5), Mookie Betts (2)

Part of the challenge of this award is determining what position combinations one values. SIS uses a Versatility Score to create a 20-player pool of candidates for the field, and the field has a mix of players who were outfield only, and those who played other position combinations.

In terms of overall excellence, Varsho and Duran, both solely outfielders, were great in both center field and left field (as former MLB outfielder Doug Glanville has told me, they’re very different positions to play). They were not finalists for MLB’s utility award.

Kiner-Falefa was the best true utility player by Runs Saved this year, finishing with at least 3 Runs Saved at second base, shortstop, and third base. Dubon also had great versatility, playing at least 20 games at first base, second base, center field, and left field.