In the midst of disappointment, a glimmer of sunshine peaks through the cracks for the Chicago White Sox as Nicky Lopez is a Gold Glove finalist
With not too many exciting moments in a historically awful season, the one bright spot for the Chicago White Sox is current 2nd basemen Nicky Lopez is a finalist for the American League Gold Glove award. He is a finalist along with Texas Rangers 2nd basemen Marcus Semien, a former GG winner in 2021, and Cleveland Guardians 2nd basemen Andrés Giménez who won the award twice (‘22, ‘23).
Congratulations to Nicky Lopez on being named a Gold Glove Award finalist! 👏 pic.twitter.com/vWDhMYeUar
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) October 15, 2024
Lopez, 29, who was traded over from Atlanta in November of last year for relief pitcher Aaron Bummer, has not won any Gold Gloves in his 6-years in the league has his work cut out for him being behind two former winners. The last position player to win the award came when Luis Robert Jr. won it for Centerfielders in 2020. The last infielder to win it for the Chicago White Sox was by Yolmer Sanchez in 2019.
Analyzing the top 3 contenders for the Gold Glove at 2nd base both Semien and Lopez are statistically tied with their fielding percentage, both rounding out at .989 for their fielding percentage. For Giménez
he is slightly under them sitting at .986% for this season.
However, both have an advantage in games played at 2nd base this season. Semien played all but 3 games at second (152), while Giménez played 152 games at the position. While sadly Lopez played just 83 games at the spot, while other games (45) were played at shortstop.
Sadly, the odds of Lopez winning the award are slim to none given that he doesn’t even come close to the number of games played compared to the other two finalist. Even though Lopez and Semien are statically tied for fielding percentage, the fact that Marcus Semien was an all-star this season, and how poorly the Chicago White Sox played this season gives him an extreme advantage.
Whether if Nicky Lopez wins the award or not is yet to be seen. That will ultimately be for the Baseball Writers to decide if he’s worthy or not. If I were to bet, I would say Marcus Semien has the advantage given the games he’s played and his level of star power. At the end of the day though, having Lopez’s being in the discussion is a win for the Chicago White Sox at the end of the day.
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