Story by
Two Padres Named MLB Gold Glove Award Finalists
- Story by
- Two Padres Named MLB Gold Glove Award Finalists
(David Frerker - Imagn Images)
In baseball, it's just as important to prevent runs as it is to score them.
That's why, in 1957, MLB and glove manufacturer Rawlings began handing out Gold Glove Awards to the best defensive players at all nine fielding positions in both the National and American Leagues. In 2022, a 10th award in each league was added for utility players who don't strictly play one position.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, MLB announced the three nominees at each position in the NL and AL with two San Diego Padres named NL finalists at their respective positions.
First baseman Ty France is actually a defending Gold Glove winner as he took home the prize for his defensive work in 2025 when he played for both the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays.
This year, France returned to his original organization in San Diego and turned into an indispensable part of both the Padres' offense and defense as the team earned the NL's top Wild Card seed from which they swept the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card Series before falling in four games to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Divisional Series.
It was France who hit the controversial flyball in the ninth inning that struck a truss in the closed roof of Milwaukee's American Family Field, potentially costing the Padres a win over the Brewers in Game One of the NLDS.
Advertisement
Defensively, France appeared in 127 games in 2026 at first for the Padres, with 116 starts. In 1,030.1 innings, he handled 951 chances with only three errors for a .997 fielding percentage. He also added 138 assists and 810 putouts, which allowed him to lead all MLB first baseman with +15 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), a metric that determines the number of runs above or below average a player is worth based on their overall defense. France's DRS figure in his Gold Glove-winning 2025 was +9.
Additionally, France's defensive numbers helped give him a score of 9 in "Total Zone Total Fielding Runs Above Average (Rtot)." This metric determines the number of runs above or below average a player is worth based on the number of plays made. For comparison's sake, France's Rtot value when he won the AL Gold Glove in 2025 was 10.
France will be vying with Matt Olson of the Atlanta Braves and T.J. Rumfield of the Colorado Rockies for the Gold Glove honor.
Joining France in the Gold Glove hunt is catcher Freddy Fermin , who earned his first nomination. Fermin counted 74 starts among his 95 appearances behind the plate for the Padres this season.
Advertisement
In 660.2 innings of work, Fermin had 640 putouts with 37 assists and only seven errors for a .990 fielding percentage. He was also very efficient in controlling the running games of opposing teams as he threw out 24 of 55 attempted base stealers, a 30.4% success rate that was well above the league average of 23.3%.
He also performed well in various advanced-metric categories, including being ranked in the 86th percentile or better in blocks above average (+10, 93rd percentile), caught stealing above average (+6, 97th percentile) and average pop time (1.88 seconds, 86th percentile).
Opposing Fermin in the battle to secure the NL Gold Glove for catching are Gabriel Moreno of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Luis Torrens of the New York Mets.
The Gold Glove winners will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 1 on ESPN.
