At the risk of sounding mid-to-highfalutin, it didn't surprise me that the White Sox landed a Gold Glove finalist amid Rawlings' announcement on Tuesday afternoon despite team defense that was either the worst in baseball or the second-worst in baseball, depending on your metric of choice.
In an attempt to better relate to the common reader, the specific White Sox honored by Rawlings caught me off guard. Nicky Lopez played a good second base. He just didn't play a great second base, nor a ton of second base, as he was required to play an increasing amount of shortstop during the second half of the season, so I figured there had to be three second basemen who graded out better to a significant degree. As it turns out, the AL Gold Glove for second base is a two-horse race, and Lopez was close enough to the rest of the competition to win the most cursory of nods.
Lopez wouldn't have been my first guess for which 2024 White Sox would be a Gold Glove finalist. Just like the actual race at second base, he'd be in the running amid a crowded field for third. My first guess would involve asking if Dominic Fletcher accrued enough innings to qualify for right field, because he posted some of the league's best metrics on a per-game basis.
My second guess? None other than Chris Flexen.
I'd become Flex-positive about pitcher defense last month while looking up the SABR Defensive Index score for an unrelated position. The SDI -- a score aggregating data from the three leading statistical sources of defensive analytics -- accounts for roughly a quarter of the award's selection process, so it gives you a head start in assessing the potential Gold Glove field. The last set of ratings dates back to Aug. 11, probably because Rawlings doesn't want the field spoiled, and at least at that given time, Flexen topped the list:
| Player | Team | SDI |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Flexen | White Sox | 2.8 |
| Seth Lugo | Royals | 2.8 |
| Griffin Canning | Angels | 2.5 |
| Cole Ragans | Royals | 2.5 |
| Michael Wacha | Royals | 2.2 |
I'd actually heard about the Royals' defensive excellence from the pitching staff thanks to Mark Simon, who wrote how Kansas City lapped the field in PFP back in September, so it's not surprising to see four of them in the top eight.
Conversely, the White Sox didn't even have one position qualify as average according to Defensive Runs Saved, but the pitchers came closest at -2 thanks to Flexen's contributions. It's just that his +4 DRS was negated by Garrett Crochet's -4 DRS, leaving the other 33 guys who pitched for the White Sox in 2024 to ultimately settle the score. In true 2024 White Sox form, they beat themselves.
And in true 2024 Chris Flexen form, the guy whose team lost 20 straight games he'd started won't end up getting the win here, either.
I wouldn't call it a snub, because Flexen finished tied for fifth in pitcher DRS behind Tanner Bibee (6 DRS) and Lugo, Canning and Wacha (5).
That eliminates the need to raise hell on behalf of his withheld hardware, but it's still worth highlighting Flexen's performance. Because while he's an impending free agent who will probably ply his trade elsewhere next season, other White Sox pitchers would be wise to notice some things he did to make his life easier, especially if Chris Getz's second attempt at fixing the defense goes as poorly as his first.
When it comes to pitcher defense, they generally stand out for extreme characteristics. Maybe they're Death to Running Games, or maybe their coordination disintegrates when asked to throw in any direction besides home plate. Otherwise, they're just not involved in enough plays to build up the kind of sample size that naturally reveals defensive excellence or inadequacy at other positions.
Flexen graded out well by doing everything well enough. He was involved in 28 fielding chances and didn't commit an error in any of them, so he avoided the easiest negative marks. After acing the basic requirements, subjectivity enters the picture. A review of the outs Flexen made reveal no stunning Web Gems, only a parade of easily handled nubbers, with the occasional double play ...
... or quick reaction to a bunt to break up the monotony.
He was more noticeable for suppressing activity on the basepaths. Flexen led the White Sox in innings pitched (160) and baserunners allowed (249), yet despite all these chances -- and despite playing for a team that allowed the second-highest total of stolen bases in the American League with 139 -- Flexen only allowed six steals in 10 attempts. Eight other White Sox pitchers yielded more, and most of them in far fewer opportunities.
- Garrett Crochet: 17 SB, 1 CS
- Nick Nastrini: 15 SB, 0 CS
- Michael Soroka: 13 SB, 4 CS
- Jonathan Cannon: 10 SB, 7 CS
- Drew Thorpe: 9 SB, 0 CS
- Dominic Leone: 8 SB, 0 CS
- Justin Anderson: 8 SB, 1 CS
- Jared Shuster: 7 SB, 2 CS
- Chris Flexen: 6 SB, 4 CS
- Mike Clevinger: 5 SB, 0 CS
Cannon (+3 DRS) and Davis Martin (+2) were the only other pitchers who finished multiple runs in the black, and their ability in preventing extra bases stands out. Only four pitchers had more unsuccessful stolen base attempts while pitching than Cannon, and Martin yielded just two stolen bases in five attempts over his 50 innings.
It's only when you go a step further when you realize you can't take such reliable fielding for granted. If you search on Statcast for singles in the vicinity of the pitcher, you'll see none involving Flexen. If you search the same thing for Crochet, you'll see six, or four that didn't involve a hot shot that deflected off his person.
Of course, it doesn't really matter that Crochet doesn't field his position well because his ability to rack up 209 strikeouts over 146 innings lessens the risk, and the way he generates the power to rack up those strikeouts puts him in a less necessary position to spring off the mound. Ask Flexen to trade his fielding prowess for the six-tick differential on his fastball, and he'd probably say "yes" before you finished the question.
For pitchers like Flexen, every out counts, and guys like Cannon, Martin and Thorpe are a lot closer to this particular mold. To single out Cannon, he also helped himself defensively, albeit one notch below Flexen across the board. He allowed more stolen bases in fewer innings, but at least more baserunning outs also happened on his watch, resulting in a still-enviable percentage. He missed one possibly makeable play, but he committed no errors and responded well to the contact that tested his reaction time.
If Cannon never quite figures out how to miss bats at an average rate no matter how many pitches he tries, then smothering the weird contact he induces and slowing down the traffic that reaches is his path towards providing the bulk innings this rotation will need now and down the road. Meanwhile, Flexen is a a free agent, so pretending the whole post is about Cannon will help it be a lot more relevant.
