PHOENIX — The Phillies had four players announced as Gold Glove finalists Wednesday night, all of them up the middle.
Catcher J.T. Realmuto, second baseman Bryson Stott and starting pitchers Taijuan Walker and Zack Wheeler were among the three finalists at their position. And if Ranger Suarez, the king of comebackers, the Phillies' best defensive pitcher by far, had enough innings to qualify, he could have been on the list, too. Same for center fielder Johan Rojas.
The Phillies have improved drastically on defense over the last three years. There were internal improvements for players like Stott and Alec Bohm. There was the trade for Brandon Marsh, who shifted to left field when Rojas became the everyday centerfielder and has been even better defensively in an outfield corner.
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Most importantly, there was Bryce Harper's move to first base after the All-Star break, which took Kyle Schwarber out of left field and let him DH. Their team defense has been well above average since.
"You look at the transformation of this club that our upper management has done — Dave (Dombrowski) and Sam (Fuld) and all the assistants — to make this team such an athletic team more so than they were two years ago. It's really remarkable," manager Rob Thomson prior to Game 3 of the NLCS at Chase Field.
"If you compare this team to two years ago, say, J.T., Stott, two pitchers -- should be three with Ranger, but he doesn't have enough innings -- Stott, and if he played long enough, you have Rojas in center field and Marsh in the left field, those guys would be in the conversations, I would think."
Stott has a real chance to win at second base. The other finalists are Nico Hoerner of the Cubs and Ha-Seong Kim of the Padres. Stott led the group with 16 Outs Above Average, a Statcast metric, and was tied for fifth in the majors at any position.
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"I mean, I think it's pretty cool," Stott said Thursday afternoon. "Just kind of looking at stuff with (infield coach) Bobby Dickerson and some stuff that he thinks might go into voting and what not, he thinks I have a pretty good shot at it.
"It's not a trophy that I wanted. Obviously it would be cool, but I think this team has eyes on bigger trophies and team-oriented stuff."
Realmuto has two Gold Gloves, 2019 and 2022. None of the Phillies' other three finalists has ever won.
Walker led all National League right-handers with six pick-offs in 2023. The starting pitching finalists are Walker, Wheeler and Marlins lefty Jesus Luzardo, who the Phillies beat in Game 1 of the wild-card round.
Winners will be revealed on ESPN on Sunday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m, the night after a potential World Series Game 7.