Three Yankees were nominated Thursday as finalists for the Gold Glove award at their respective positions.
Masahiro Tanaka was nominated for AL pitcher, along with Corey Kluber and Dallas Keuchel, while Brett Gardner was selected among the left-field nominees with Alex Gordon and Andrew Benintendi. Finally, Aaron Judge made the cut for right field with Kole Calhoun and likely MVP finalist Mookie Betts.
Tanaka committed just one error this season in 39 chances and helped turn a career-high four double plays. Gardner had three errors in 207 chances in left field, where he played 107 games, and added five assists (six total).
Judge, who has one of the most feared arms in the game among runners thinking of snagging an extra base, had nine assists in just 90 games in right field and made three errors in 182 chances.
Not among the Yankees nominees, oft-derided catcher Gary Sanchez, who led the league in passed balls and demonstrated a fairly lax attitude in chasing those balls down.
Sanchez, who allowed 18 passed balls in just 76 games, may be due for a reassessment, however, as catcher after catcher throughout this postseason has shown difficulty keeping the ball in front of him.
Yasmani Grandal of the Dodgers, who did not start the first two games of the World Series, had a particularly harrowing experience in Game 1 of the NLCS, when he committed two errors and allowed a passed ball all in one inning. He also committed another error in the game.
But Grandal is hardly the only offender, with passed balls and wild pitches at a premium this postseason.
So, perhaps now’s as good a time as any to be reminded of all the quality fielders this year gave us.
Except the Mets, who had no Gold Glove finalists.


