The Milwaukee Brewers' 2025 Gold Glove finalists should come as no surprise

The Milwaukee Brewers have become a perennial playoff contender by straying from the strategies that other teams use to become successful ballclubs. Mostly out of necessity, given the Brewers' payroll constraints, the organization's front office has come to prioritize finding traits that are undervalued on the market. In an era where power is expensive, the Brewers have filled their roster with players who add value in other ways, including playing excellent defense.

As a result, the team as a whole has taken home the "Team Gold Glove Award" in each of the last two seasons, and will certainly be a strong candidate once again this year. However, while the team as a whole does an excellent job of taking runs off the board for the opposing team, several individual performances continue to shine through as some of the best in baseball.

Rawlings just released this year's finalists for their coveted Gold Glove Awards, and Milwaukee's representatives, though they certainly could have included a few more names, should come as no surprise to Brewers fans.

Brice Turang and Sal Frelick named finalists for 2025 Gold Glove Awards

For the second consecutive season, second baseman Brice Turang and right fielder Sal Frelick have been named finalists for Gold Gloves at their respective positions. A season ago, Blake Perkins joined the duo as a nominee, but given the amount of time that he missed this season, the Brewers' talented center fielder wasn't eligible for the award this year.

Turang not only won the National League's Gold Glove at second base a season ago, but he also took home the Platinum Glove, deeming him the best overall defender in the National League. Though his defense wasn't quite as strong this season, the Brewers' talented second baseman continued to excel in one key metric: Defensive Runs Saved (DRS). DRS, which is generally preferred to other metrics when evaluating infielders, takes into account the likelihood of a player making a certain play and, based on the difficulty of said play, awards them a positive score if they complete it and a negative one if they don't. Turang frequently makes plays on the opposite side of second base that most other second basemen wouldn't be able to complete, which boosts his DRS.

That said, Turang collected just 7 DRS this season after his impressive mark of 22 a season ago. Even still, Turang ranks second among NL second basemen in DRS, trailing only the Chicago Cubs' Nico Hoerner, who racked up 17 DRS this year.

Meanwhile, when evaluating outfielders' defensive value, the preferred metric is Outs Above Average (OAA), which focuses on range using Statcast data to determine how much ground a given player truly covers. With range being the number one determinant of an outfielder’s defensive acumen, OAA is generally used to determine the Gold Glove finalists in the outfield each year.

Ranking third among all MLB right-fielders in OAA is Sal Frelick. Unfortunately for Frelick, the two names that rank above him, Corbin Carroll and Fernando Tatis Jr., also happen to play in the National League, making Frelick's path to a second-straight Gold Glove an uphill one. However, these metrics are not the end-all be-all, and there are generally some surprises when the winners are announced, which will occur on November 2nd, so don't count out Frelick, or Turang for that matter, just yet.

Where is Joey Ortiz?

Perhaps the only surprise with the announcement of the Gold Glove finalists this morning is the absence of Joey Ortiz's name from the list of NL shortstops vying for the award. If you tuned in to just a single Brewers game this season, it's likely that you still saw Ortiz make a diving play up the middle or spin a spotless double play with his middle-infield partner Turang.

However, while Ortiz's defensive performance certainly passes the eye test, when it comes to the metrics that play a large role in determining the Gold Glove finalists, Ortiz gets very little love. He does beat out Mookie Betts, who likely barely snuck onto the list of nominees aided by the fact that he switched positions and continued to excel defensively, when it comes to OAA and Fielding Run Value -- a third metric that is quickly gaining more popularity. But, when it comes to DRS, which, as previously mentioned, is the preferred metric for evaluating infielders, Ortiz collected -2 this season, whereas Betts led all MLB shortstops with 17.

It would have been more than justifiable to have Ortiz's name among the NL shortstops nominated for this year's Gold Glove Award, but given the inconsistency in his advanced metrics, there's a reason his name was ultimately left off.