Clevelinks: Gold Glove Requirements need changing; Cleveland Indians need to win while they can

Cleveland Indians Need to Win Now While Contention Window is Open

Baseball announced the Rawlings Gold Award on Tuesday night, and none of the Cleveland Indians won an award. No Indian even was nominated for a Gold Glove. Surely that cannot be correct? After all, Francisco Lindor was arguably the best defensive shortstop last year. His Ultimate Zone Rating per 150 innings, a statistic that evaluates fielding performance, ranked first among shortstops with at least 500 innings. Given this strong performance, Lindor could have won the award.

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So why was he not nominated? He was not eligible for the award. According to the official requirements, infielders must have played in the field for at least 690 innings through his team’s first 137 games. As Matt Bretz pointed out, this led to an unfair and broken system. Even further, Lindor played in the American League for one less out than Yoenis Cespedes, yet Cespedes won the award for left field. This is because Cespedes roamed the outfield for the first four months in Detroit, but Lindor played shortstop for the last four months in Cleveland.

In other news, Andrew Schmid wrote that the Cleveland Indians face a closing window of contention. The team’s current talent will age, but new talent should replace it in the future. The biggest problem will be the team’s army of cheap talent, which will become arbitration eligible soon. As things currently stand, the team will have a $100 million payroll in 2018. Luckily, the Indians still have a few years to figure things out before the roster crunch begins.

More from around the AL Central:

Cleveland Indians Face a Closing Window of Contention – Wahoo’s on First

Cleveland Indians: Baseball Needs to Revise the Gold Glove Eligibility Requirements – Wahoo’s on First

‘Red Sox acquire Kimbrel from Padres’ – MLB.com

Make Sure an Indians Fan is Crowned Fan of the Year – Wahoo’s on First

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