Four Diamondbacks are in the mix for Gold Gloves, and Arizona fans got a little something extra this morning when the National League finalists were announced.
The biggest headline belongs to Gabriel Moreno behind the plate. He’s up for catcher along with Freddy Fermin of the San Diego Padres and Luis Torrens of the New York Mets.
Moreno has the edge in Defensive Runs Saved, while Torrens leads in Def, and Moreno also logged more than 200 extra innings at the position than the other two finalists. The piece most likely left out of the conversation, though, is the Marlins’ Joe Mack, who, on Fangraphs’ table, led the league in Def, was the best pitch framer, and finished third in Defensive Runs Saved.
With Mack out of the picture, it looks close enough among the remaining three. There’s also the small matter of a contract extension, since a win could make things pricier for the club.
At shortstop, Geraldo Perdomo gets his finalist nod alongside Masyn Winn of the St. Louis Cardinals and Dansby Swanson of the Chicago Cubs.
Winn looks like the favorite on paper, sitting near the top of the metrics across the board and arriving as the defending Gold Glove winner after taking the award in 2025. Perdomo’s case is built more on volume and reputation from a strong defensive season, and he played more innings at short than anyone else in the National League.
Still, the article makes clear this would be a notable recognition for a year that was otherwise viewed as underwhelming after his huge 2025.
Corbin Carroll is Arizona’s finalist in right field, where he’s joined by Carson Benge of the Mets and Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs. Carroll’s defensive growth stands out here.
He was a finalist last year too, and that already said plenty given the questions around his arm strength coming up through the minors and into the majors. That remains a factor, with his rARM at -3, but he’s covered for it well enough to stay in the conversation.
Suzuki may be the name to beat, but Carroll led National League right fielders in Outs Above Average and finished just behind Suzuki in Defensive Runs Saved, 14-12. Fangraphs’ Def metric was less kind, putting Carroll below average at -0.7 and sixth in the group.
The fourth D-backs finalist is Geraldo Perdomo’s teammate by position category only in the broader award picture: utility man Jorge? No-Arizona doesn’t have a finalist there.
Instead, the utility field includes Mauricio Dubón of the Atlanta Braves and Jared Triolo of the Pittsburgh Pirates. This one works differently from the others, since it’s a newer award added in 2022 and is not decided by managers and coaches.
Rawlings uses SABR’s formula and additional defensive stats to pick one winner from each league. Triolo won the NL in 2024, and Dubón took the AL honor last year with the Astros, so either would make sense.
The note in the source also points out how hard this award is to predict, because if you had said at the start of the year that Vargas would be a Gold Glove finalist after winning NL Player of the Month in April, it would have sounded far-fetched. #YouCantPredictBaseball
In Other News...
Diamondbacks Offseason Focus Is Getting Hard To Ignore
The Diamondbacks are only starting to sort through their offseason business, but the direction is already becoming clear. Mike Hazen said trade talks are still in the early stages, and the front office has one problem it knows it needs to address: getting better against right-handed pitching. First base and designated hitter stand out as the most obvious places to look, which gives Arizona a fairly clean roadmap even before the winter market really gets moving.
There is also some movement on the staff side, where Brian Kaplan was not retained after his contract expired even as Hazen expects the rest of the coaching group to be back. On the mound, Corbin Burnes offered a bit of reassurance after a shoulder inflammation issue came up following a teres major strain that had already pushed back his return from Tommy John surgery. He said there are no structural concerns and that he plans to get back to normal offseason throwing once he heals, which is about as important a note as Arizona could ask for right now. [Read more 🡒]