Dansby Swanson. Mandatory Credit: Larry Robinson-USA TODAY Sports
It’s award season in Major League Baseball, and today, the prestigious Gold Glove awards were being presented. For the New York Mets, their only finalist was shortstop Francisco Lindor. Lindor, in 2023, continued his success at shortstop by making tremendous defensive plays and turning in an overall very valuable season.
Lindor led all shortstops in innings played this year with 1,366 and was fifth among National League shortstops in DRS (defensive runs saved) with seven. Previously, Lindor has won two Gold Gloves with the then Cleveland Indians in 2016 and 2019 and has yet to win one with the Mets. Unfortunately, Lindor was not awarded with his third career Gold Glove this year.
MLB announced the Gold Glove winners late on Sunday, and the Chicago Cubs’ Dansby Swanson brought home the award on the National League side. Per Fangraphs, among all the National League shortstops, Swanson was first in total defensive runs saved with 18. Overall, Swanson’s 20.3 defensive runs above average was the highest among National League shortstops, and nine higher than Lindor, who was fourth at 11.2.
A full analysis into how Lindor stacked up with other National League shortstops defensively this season can be found here.
While Lindor will have to wait another year to get his third Gold Glove and first as a Met, he still had a great season defensively and is among the best all-around shortstops in the game. Plus, Lindor has a good chance for the Silver Slugger award after a 30/30/30 season. The Silver Slugger awards will be announced on November 9.
