November 4, 2020

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Langley Blaze and Junior National Team graduate Tyler O’Neill has won the National League Gold Glove Award for left fielders.

The announcement was made by Rawlings on Tuesday.

This is the Maple Ridge, B.C. native’s first Gold Glove Award. With the honour, he becomes the first Canadian outfielder to win a National League Gold Glove Award since fellow Maple Ridge, B.C. native Larry Walker accomplished the feat with the Colorado Rockies in 2002.

O’Neill had been up against Shogo Akiyama, from the Cincinnati Reds, and David Peralta, from the Arizona Diamondbacks, for the honour. Peralta had been the reigning winner.

After playing parts of two seasons with the Cardinals in 2018 and 2019, O’Neill took over as the club’s starting left fielder this season. The 25-year-old Canuck had nine Defensive Runs Saved in 2020, which is four more than any other left fielder in the Senior Circuit.

He also fielded all 89 defensive chances he had at his position flawlessly, finishing with a 1.000 fielding percentage, and his range factor per nine innings improved to 2.33 from 1.26 in 2019.

O’Neill’s Gold Glove Award comes on the heels of him being named the winner of the Fielding Bible Award for major league left fielders by Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) on Thursday. BIS relies heavily on advanced statistics to determine the recipients and the Field Bible Awards are considered an alternative to the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.

In the past, the Gold Glove Award winners have been determined by a vote from the 30 big league managers and a select group of coaches, but seven years ago, Rawlings added a sabermetric component to the selection process.

In its press release in late October, Rawlings said that due to the abbreviated 2020 season, “the Award qualifications have been amended to rely solely on the SDI (SABR Defensive Index™) which draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts.”

O’Neill also became the first Canadian since Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) to win a National League Gold Glove Award at any position.

For a full list of 2020 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners, click on this link.