San Diego Padres: Clayton Richard, Freddy Galvis Nominated For Gold Gloves

MLB award season is underway with two members of the San Diego Padres nominated for a Gold Glove.

Major League Baseball’s award season is officially underway! On Thursday afternoon, MLB.com released their list of Rawlings Gold Glove Award finalists. Per the official release, here are the finalist groupings that include members of the San Diego Padres.

National League pitcher
Julio Teheran, Braves
Zack Greinke, D-backs
Clayton Richard, Padres

National League shortstop
Freddy Galvis, Padres
Brandon Crawford, Giants
Nick Ahmed, D-backs

A finalist for the National League Pitcher’s Gold Glove, Clayton Richard served as the Opening Day starter for the San Diego Padres, ending his season a few weeks early after undergoing knee surgery.

Per Fangraphs, Richard committed three throwing errors in 158.2 innings (.932 fielding percentage), accumulating three putouts and 38 assists. This coming off a 2017 season in which he committed zero errors in 197 innings, even starting three double plays.

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Richard is up against Julio Tehran, who committed no errors in 175 innings, recorded nine putouts and 33 assists, including two double plays. Zack Greinke, the other finalist on the list, was also error-free this season, recording 27 putouts and 30 assists. Going off baseline fielding statistics, he appears to be the early favorite to win the award.

Should Clayton Richard win the award, he won’t be the first Friar to take home a Gold Glove from the pitcher’s mound. Greg Maddux took home the award in 2007 and 2008 in his one and a half seasons with the Padres before finishing his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As for Freddy Galvis, contributing writer Michael Abbott recently opined his thoughts about Galvis potentially winning a Gold Glove Award. Galvis finished with an NL-leading fielding percentage of .986, followed by his opponent Nick Ahmed at .985. Crawford finished 8th in the NL in fielding percentage with a .975 mark. Check out Michael’s article above for more of a breakdown of the numbers between Galvis, Ahmed, and Crawford.

Winners will be announced on November 4th.