A's Nick Allen Should Be a Gold Glove Finalist

A's shortstop Nick Allen only played in 100 games, but his glove still ranked among the top shortstops in the game in 2022.

The 2022 Gold Glove Award finalists were announced just a couple of days ago, and at first I didn't think much of it. The A's got a nod in Sean Murphy being named a finalist, but there was so much turnover on the roster that it would have been difficult for anyone else in Oakland to have gathered up enough playing time at one position to be considered.

Difficult, but not impossible. 

For years now, we've been hearing about Nick Allen's glove in the minor leagues. The 2017 third rounder has always been special defensively, but we actually got to see just how gifted he is in 2022. 

NICK ALLEN, WHAT NOW?!? 😱 pic.twitter.com/nJEWtCmZiX

— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) October 2, 2022

After a couple of days with the nominees being out there, I got curious just how comparable Nick Allen was to the guys that are actually the finalists at short in the AL. Turns out, you could make a case that Allen was snubbed from a top-3 finish.

The three finalists in question are Xander Bogaerts of the Red Sox, Carlos Correa of the Twins, and Jeremy Peña of the Astros. Bogaerts played in 150 games, while Correa and Peña managed 136, and that extra month of playing time could be the difference between Nick Allen being a finalist and having to wait until next year. 

If you're going by Defensive Runs Saved over at FanGraphs, Allen's six DRS would rank 12th among all shortstops, but second only to Jeremy Peña's 15 from the guys up for the award. Bogaerts finished the year with four runs saved, and Correa had three. 

Maybe the voters aren't big fans of FanGraphs. So let's go to Baseball Savant and see what they have to say. 

According to their version of DRS, Outs Above Average (OAA), Nick Allen actually outranks all of the finalists with 8 outs above average, putting him at 8th among all shortstops over the full season. Allen also had the highest success rate of any shortstop in baseball over the whole year at 81%, and that could be aided a little by having fewer chances due to less playing time, but the other stats are cumulative. 

Peña was right behind Allen in OAA with seven, Bogaerts ranked 13th with five, and Correa ranked 26th with negative three. Correa is also the reigning Gold Glove at shortstop after having a much better season by the numbers in 2021 with Houston. He ranked 6th with 13 OAA a year ago.

The one factor he does rank highly in is arm strength, where he ranked sixth with an average throw of 88 miles per hour to first. Nick Allen ranked 12th at 85.5 mph, with Peña ranked 23rd and Bogaerts ranked 34th. 

Not to be shortchanged, Baltimore's Jorge Mateo also ranked highly in all of these metrics, played in 150 games, and should have gotten more consideration. 

Unlike the end-of-season awards that are voted on by the writers, the Gold Glove Award is voted on by managers and coaches for the majority of the vote, with some percentage of the vote going to a sabermetric component, like the stats I've mentioned above. 

With that being the case, it makes a little more sense as to why Nick Allen didn't make the final list, even with his superb defense. There were just some opposing teams that didn't get to see him when he was getting most of his playing time down the stretch. At least that's the explanation that makes sense. 

So if you were wondering how much more playing time Nick Allen would have needed to garner a nomination here, the answer seems to be enough to be seen by more opposing managers and coaches to make an imprint on them. There are also a lot of old school minds in those roles around baseball, so having 100 games in a rookie season probably wasn't going to cut it for Allen this season, regardless of the metrics. 

That just means he'll have to just go out there in 2023 and show everyone what he can do over the course of a full season. Then there will be no denying him.

As far as Jorge Mateo's candidacy goes this season, he was robbed.