Brice Turang's defensive wizardry highlights Brewers' three Gold Glove nominations

The Milwaukee Brewers built their roster around excellent defense and pitching. Routinely, they are among the best defensive teams in all of baseball and 2024 was no different. While the Rawlings Gold Glove awards have had their share of criticism in recent years, when the finalists were announced today, the Brewers had plenty of reasons to be happy.

Milwaukee had three players receive nominations for the 2024 Gold Glove award at their primary positions: Brice Turang at second base, Blake Perkins in center field, and Sal Frelick in right field.

The Brewers have not had a player win an individual Gold Glove award since Lorenzo Cain in center field in 2019 and have had just two since 1982, with the other being Carlos Gomez in 2013.

Brice Turang highlights Brewers Gold Glove contingent

According to Fielding Bible, Brice Turang had 22 defensive runs saved this year, the third-highest total in all of MLB, behind only Daulton Varsho and Jarren Duran, two American Leaguers that he is not in competition with for this award. Statcast's Range statistic has Turang in the 90th percentile in the league.

Turang's range and playmaking ability have long made him a favorite for the award synonymous with defensive excellence. He's a finalist alongside Ketel Marte of the Diamondbacks and Bryson Stott of the Phillies. According to Statcast's Outs Above Average (OAA) metric, Marte has an 8 OAA while Turang is at 6 and Stott has a meager 1 OAA.

Turang isn't the only Brewer with defensive prowess. In center field, Blake Perkins was named a finalist alongside Jacob Young of the Nationals and Brenton Doyle of the Rockies. Young and Doyle lead the league in OAA with 20 and 16 respectively. Perkins comes in last of that group with 11 outs above average. Perkins is also last of the three in defensive runs saved with eight while Young has 12 and Doyle 11.

Sal Frelick meanwhile is a finalist in right field alongside Jake McCarthy of the Diamondbacks and Mike Yastrzemski of the Giants. Frelick has the best defensive numbers of that group as he boasts a 15 DRS over Yastrzemski's four and McCarthy's -3. That's right, McCarthy is in the negative. OAA also likes Frelick, giving him a 7 outs above average, tied for the highest total in the league for right fielders, coincidentally alongside Jackson Chourio. McCarthy has just a 2 OAA while Yastrzemski is -2. That's right Yaz is in the negative in this stat.

That should give Frelick a pretty solid leg up that both of those defensive metrics prefer him over the other two finalists. Perkins faces an uphill battle against two players who played a lot more often this year, but Frelick and Turang have pretty good chances to take home a Gold Glove.

More Brewers News from Reviewing the Brew