Brewers win 2 Gold Glove awards as young stars earn well-deserved recognition

The Milwaukee Brewers pride themselves on their defense. It's one of the main pillars of the Brewers success on the field and that focus is embodied by nobody better than Brice Turang and Sal Frelick especially during the 2024 season.

The defensive work that Turang and Frelick put in this season was exceptional and it was no surprise when both were named as finalists for the Rawlings Gold Glove awards at their respective positions of second base and right field. Center fielder Blake Perkins was also named a finalist for the award at his position.

The question would be if Rawlings would give the young Brewers players the actual award at the end of the day or if they would simply remain finalists. The reputation of the award in recent years is that it hasn't always gone to the best defender at the position.

When the awards show presentation took place on Sunday night, both Turang and Frelick were rewarded with a well deserved recognition. This is the first Gold Glove award in the career of both players.

Brice Turang, Sal Frelick earn 2024 Gold Glove awards

Brice Turang was one of the top defenders in all of baseball this season, regardless of position. Turang had the 3rd highest DRS in the entire league with 22 defensive runs saved according to Fielding Bible. He was behind only Daulton Varsho and Jarren Duran, making him the best defender in the National League.

Sal Frelick wasn't too far behind with 15 defensive runs saved, which put him 12th in all of baseball. Frelick also had a 7 Outs Above Average, which tied him for 1st among NL right fielders. Interestingly enough, the player he was tied with was his own teammate Jackson Chourio.

Turang won the NL Gold Glove at second base over Ketel Marte of the Diamondbacks and Bryson Stott of the Phillies. Frelick took home the NL Gold Glove in right field over Jake McCarthy of the Diamondbacks and Mike Yastrzemski of the Giants.

Brewers players and coaches were raving about the defense of both Turang and Frelick all season long, campaigning for them both to win Gold Glove awards.

This is just the second time in franchise history that the Brewers have had two players win a Gold Glove in the same season. In 1979, Cecil Cooper won the award at first base and Sixto Lezcano won in the outfield. These are the first Gold Gloves for Milwaukee since Lorenzo Cain in 2019 and just the 3rd and 4th total Gold Gloves since 1982.

Blake Perkins ultimately fell short in making it a clean sweep for Brewers finalists at the Gold Glove awards. He faced an uphill battle in center field against Jacob Young of the Nationals and Brenton Doyle, both of whom had around 300 more innings in center this year than Perkins did.