Brice Turang may be staring at another Gold Glove snub, but the numbers say this race is a lot tighter than the early projections suggest.
MLB.com’s experts currently have Cardinals rookie JJ Wetherholt as the favorite at second base in the National League, largely because he leads all second basemen in Outs Above Average and Fielding Run Value, checking in at +21 in both categories. That’s a hefty edge on paper. Turang, meanwhile, sits fourth in OAA and second in FRV at +12 in each.
But there’s another side to the story, and it may matter more to voters. Turang has built a bigger cushion in Defensive Runs Saved, where his +21 mark leads the field by seven over Nasim Nuñez and by eight over Wetherholt.
That’s not a small detail. OAA and FRV lean heavily on range, and range is only part of the job at second base.
DRS, by comparison, gives a fuller picture of how often a fielder actually turns balls into outs.
That distinction lines up with how Turang has already won before. In 2024, he took home both a Gold Glove and a Platinum Glove after posting a massive +22 DRS, even though his OAA and FRV that season were only +5 apiece and both fell outside the top four NL second basemen. The voters clearly valued the broader defensive profile then, and that could matter again now.
Turang was also a Gold Glove finalist in 2025, only to finish behind Nico Hoerner. So if he ends up losing again in 2026, it wouldn’t exactly be new ground. Still, based on how these awards have been decided before, he looks like he has a better shot than the current national buzz is giving him.
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