Baltimore Orioles Boast 3 Gold Glove Finalists, Including Catcher Adley Rutschman

Adley Rutschman, Ryan Mountcastle and Austin Hays are the Baltimore Orioles who were named finalists for Gold Glove Awards on Wednesday.
Baltimore Orioles Boast 3 Gold Glove Finalists, Including Catcher Adley Rutschman
Baltimore Orioles Boast 3 Gold Glove Finalists, Including Catcher Adley Rutschman /
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The Baltimore Orioles have a few players on the verge of earning some serious defensive hardware this fall.

The finalists for the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards were announced Wednesday. Three players at each position are up for the award in both the American League and National League.

Baltimore boasts three finalists – catcher Adley Rutschman, first baseman Ryan Mountcastle and left fielder Austin Hays.

Rutschman played his first full MLB season in 2023, earning All-Star honors in July. The second-year rising star started 104 games behind the dish and appeared six more times at the position off the bench.

In 934.2 innings at catcher, Rutschman totaled 45 assists, six errors and a .994 fielding percentage. Rutschman caught 16 out of 73 possible base-stealers, good for a 22% caught stealing percentage.

The other finalists alongside Rutschman are Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim and and Toronto Blue Jays catchers Alejandro Kirk. Rutschman's 0.2 dWAR ranks third in the group.

Mountcastle, meanwhile, will be going against Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

Injuries limited Mountcastle to 115 games this season, 90 of which came at first. However, Rizzo only played 92 games at first, and Kirk only played 99.

Mountcastle and Rizzo both finished the year with negative dWARs, while Kirk's was 1.7.

The Orioles' final finalist is Hays, who made his first career All-Star appearance at age 28 this season. Across 141 appearances in the outfield, Hays accumulated four assists and zero errors.

Hays will have to battle it out with Blue Jays outfielder Daulton Varsho and Cleveland Guardians second-year defensive stalwart Steven Kwan. Hays' 0.2 dWAR trails Kwan's 1.2 mark, as well as Varsho's 2.8.

The full list of Gold Glove finalists can be found here.

Winners will be announced Nov. 5 on ESPN. Managers and coaches across the league make up the deciding voting body.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon is a Staff Writer for Fastball on the Sports Illustrated/FanNation networks. He previously covered UCLA Athletics for Sports Illustrated/FanNation's All Bruins, 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' Bruin Blitz, the Bleav Podcast Network and the Daily Bruin, with his work as a sports columnist receiving awards from the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon also wrote for Sports Illustrated/FanNation's New England Patriots site, Patriots Country, and he was on the Patriots and Boston Red Sox beats at Prime Time Sports Talk.