Atlanta Braves’ Max Fried, Dansby Swanson win Gold Glove awards

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Fried and shortstop Dansby Swanson won Rawlings Gold Glove awards. This is Swanson’s first Gold Glove award and Fried’s 3rd consecutive award.

The yearly awards are given to the best defensive player at each position as voted on by the managers and coaches of each league.

Swanson had just eight errors across 1,433 innings played, the second-most innings in baseball. He also impressed the sabermetrics, with 9 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and 1.1 Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR). Swanson was far and away the most valuable defensive shortstop in the National League, leading the league in Fielding Runs Above Average. Fielding Runs Above Average is a metric that uses play-by-play data that determines how many plays a given player made relative to how many plays that position normally makes.

Fried picked off three baserunners across 30 starts, the fourth-most in baseball.

Swanson is the first Braves shortstop to win a Gold Glove since Andrelton Simmons in 2014. Fried is the second Braves pitcher to win three consecutive Gold Gloves, following Greg Maddux who won 13 straight from 1990 to 2002.

The National League was rounded out by Christian Walker of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Brendan Rogers of the Colorado Rockies, Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan of the St. Louis Cardinals, Trent Grisham of the San Diego Padres, Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs, Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers and J.T. Realmuto of the Philadelphia Phillies.