SF Giants C Patrick Bailey falls short of Gold Glove in rookie season

After an impressive rookie campaign, SF Giants catcher Patrick Bailey fell short of a National League 2023 Gold Glove to a division rival.

After an impressive rookie season, SF Giants catcher Patrick Bailey fell short of winning the 2023 National League Gold Glove award. Bailey had a chance to be the first rookie catcher to win a Gold Glove in the 21st century, but the award instead went to Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno. While there's a case to be made that Bailey was snubbed, it's still incredibly impressive that he was a Gold Glove finalist as a rookie.

Bailey started the 2023 season in Double-A Richmond, quickly moving up the farm system and earning a big league call up by mid-May. He added life to the line up, hitting .322/.347/.557 with 10 doubles, a triple, and five home runs in his first 33 games. He ultimately finished the year with a .233/.285/.359 MLB triple-slash with 18 doubles, a triple, and seven home runs in 353 plate appearances.

His defense solidified himself as the Giants’ starting catcher. Despite starting the season in the minor leagues, Bailey ended up atop almost every defensive leaderboard for catchers. He finished second on Baseball Prospectus’ fielding leaderboard for Deserved Runs Prevented (a measure of player’s total fielding contributions, in runs) at 22.8, only behind Austin Hedges. He also led all MLB catchers in Defensive Runs, according to Statcast.

While Bailey was a favorite of advanced metrics, especially those that placed a greater value on pitch framing, Moreno was noticeably better in traditional statistics. Bailey, for example, led catchers in passed balls (eight) and committed 13 errors in 76 games while Moreno recorded just one passed ball and three errors. Moreno also threw out a league-best 39% of opposing base stealers.

Regardless of whether Patrick Bailey was snubbed of a Gold Glove or not, the SF Giants catcher sure looks like the franchise's catcher of the future. If he continues to improve upon his rookie season, it will not be long before he adds a Gold Glove to his trophy case.