With incredible defense on display this season, Jose Trivino and DJ LeMahieu won Gold Glove honors for their positions.
The Yankees have always been known as the “Bronx Bombers” since basically the inception of the team. Generations of sluggers have come and passed as time goes on, but the name lives on forever. However, the Yankees also have a history of taking Gold Glove honors as well.
Derek Jeter, Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly may come to mind and many more such as Mickey Mantle, Mike Mussina and Ron Guidry. In 2022, DJ LeMahieu and Jose Trivino join these legends as Rawlings Gold Glove winners while wearing pinstripes.
Although Jose Trivino was a rookie this year, he showed the entire world what he could do and he truly performed at a level some veterans are still trying to reach. His “framing” ability behind the dish this season set him apart from other catchers in the American League. Routinely able to steal strikes from the umpire, the entire pitching staff loved throwing to him.
His 17 Stat-cast Framing Runs, lead the league by an undeniable margin and truly showed how well he can manipulate the strike zone. He is estimated to have saved 17 runs just by extending the strike zone by an inch or two.
This is so important because Major League hitters often make adjustments from pitch to pitch, meaning they can make one adjustment and change the result with one swing. Taking that opportunity away from them can make such an enormous difference in how a ballgame plays out, and that is why Trivino is so special.
The incredible part of this season for Trivino is simply the fact that he also added 21 Defensive Runs Saved as well. Not only was he absolutely stellar at framing, but he also excelled at keeping the ball in front of him and throwing runners out.
For someone with the build of DJ LeMahieu at 6’4″ and 220 lbs, most would think he would simply be a first or third-baseman, but he has shown to be an exception to that rule. While starting his career with the Colorado Rockies and primarily taking the second base position, he has since embraced more options in his time with the Yankees.
Performing at first, second and third base this season, he has delivered Gold Glove quality defense at each position. He spread his defensive starts relatively evenly amongst the aforementioned positions and truly gave Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, multiple options for him.
Despite having a down year offensively, LeMahieu’s defensive performance made it hard-pressed for Boone to take him out of the lineup.
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Featured image courtesy of Charles Wenzelberg / Getty Images
Statistics courtesy of baseball-reference.com
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