Rendon loses Gold Glove Award to Arenado again

By Mark Zuckerman

Nationals

November 04, 2018, 2:34pm

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Anthony Rendon is widely regarded as one of the best third basemen in the sport. But for now, he continues to be regarded as a notch below Nolan Arenado.

For the third consecutive year, Rendon finished behind Arenado for the Gold Glove Award at third base. The awards, presented annually by Rawlings, were handed out this evening.

Rendon has been a finalist (i.e., one of the top three vote-getters at his position) each of the last three years. But each time the quiet Nationals star has finished behind the Rockies' Arenado, who has now won six Gold Glove Awards in a row.

Voting by National League managers and coaches was conducted in late September, with a sabermetic component provided by the Society for American Baseball Research also accounting for 25 percent of the final tally. The Brewers' Travis Shaw was the other finalist at third base.

Rendon had a case to unseat Arenado this year. His .981 fielding percentage was best among all qualifying third basemen, and he was charged with only six errors to Arenado's 14 and Shaw's 10. He also narrowly topped Arenado in Ultimate Zone Rating, 5.9 to 5.8.

Arenado did edge out Rendon in FanGraphs.com's overall defensive metric, 8.1 to 7.9. Shaw led the NL in Defensive Runs Saved with a +9 rating, with Arenado at +5 and Rendon surprisingly at -6.

Rendon was the Nationals' only Gold Glove Award finalist this season. The club has had two award winners in the past: Ryan Zimmerman in 2009 and Adam LaRoche in 2012.