The 2023 Gold Glove Award winners were announced Sunday night, honoring the best individual fielding performances at each position in the American and National Leagues. Here’s what you need to know:

• This year’s group featured 13 first-time winners, the second most since the award was established in 1957, trailing only last season’s 14 when the utility player category was introduced.
• Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe became the first rookie in franchise history to win a Gold Glove, and the first Yankees shortstop to take home the award since Derek Jeter in 2010.
• Rockies center fielder Brenton Doyle also won the honor, marking the third time in the award’s history that multiple rookies earned Gold Gloves in the same year.
• The World Series champion Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs led the way with three selections each.

National League Gold Glove winners:

• First base: Christian Walker, Arizona Diamondbacks
• Second base: Nico Hoerner, Chicago Cubs
• Third base: Ke’Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh Pirates
• Shortstop: Dansby Swanson, Chicago Cubs
• Left field: Ian Happ, Chicago Cubs
• Center field: Brenton Doyle, Colorado Rockies
• Right field: Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres
• Utility: Ha-Seong Kim, San Diego Padres
• Pitcher: Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies
• Catcher: Gabriel Moreno, Arizona Diamondbacks

American League Gold Glover winners:

• First base: Nathaniel Lowe, Texas Rangers
• Second base: Andrés Giménez, Cleveland Guardians
• Third base: Matt Chapman, Toronto Blue Jays
• Shortstop: Anthony Volpe, New York Yankees
• Left field: Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians
• Center field: Kevin Kiermaier, Toronto Blue Jays
• Right field: Adolis García, Texas Rangers
• Utility: Mauricio Dubón, Houston Astros
• Pitcher: José Berríos, Toronto Blue Jays
• Catcher: Jonah Heim, Texas Rangers

Volpe wins Gold Glove … but will he stay at SS?

I’m not sure if Volpe was the best defensive American League shortstop I saw this season, but he was the clear choice over the two other finalists: Minnesota Twins’ Carlos Correa and Texas Rangers’ Corey Seager. Volpe’s advanced metrics were much better than Correa’s and Seager’s, beating them both out in defensive runs saved, outs above average and FanGraphs’ defense runs above average. The only knock Volpe had against those two was committing more errors than both, but judging a defender solely off of errors doesn’t show the complete picture of that player.

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Volpe came into the 2023 season seen as an inferior defensive prospect compared with Oswald Peraza. Even with a Gold Glove now to his name, long term, Peraza still has a better defensive package at shortstop than Volpe. He has more range, a much stronger arm and is smoother at the position than Volpe. It’ll be interesting though to see if winning a Gold Glove affects how the Yankees view their middle infield because, from a defensive standpoint, their best alignment might be Peraza at shortstop and Volpe at second base.

Winning a Gold Glove caps a rookie season full of potential for Volpe. He finished 2023 with over 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases and is now recognized with the Yankees’ first Gold Glove at shortstop since Jeter won in 2010. Moving into 2024, the focus for Volpe has to be to develop more overall consistency at the plate. — Chris Kirschner, Yankees beat writer

Cubs’ investment in defense pays off

This is what the Cubs envisioned when they made a huge investment in defense last offseason, signing Dansby Swanson to a seven-year, $177 million contract and moving Nico Hoerner off shortstop. Before and after Opening Day, the Cubs closed contract extensions with Hoerner and left fielder Ian Happ, adding to their nucleus of core players signed through at least 2026. With those three Gold Glove winners in place, defense will continue to be a big part of this team’s identity.

Swanson, who led all shortstops with 18 defensive runs saved, is one of those players who you need to see every day to fully appreciate his talents. Hoerner switched positions without complaint and posted a .988 fielding percentage at second base. Happ, who won his second consecutive Gold Glove, led all left fielders with 12 outfield assists.

This is the first time the Cubs have had at least three players earn Gold Gloves in a season.

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“From the beginning of the year, as a team, we were really going to be valuing run prevention,” Hoerner said. “Whether we got the awards or not, I felt that our team really did that. For the three of us to get recognition, it feels great.”

Defense was in mind when team president Jed Hoyer made Swanson a free-agent priority in the offseason. Part of the focus was that with the shift being limited starting in 2023, having a shortstop good enough to push Hoerner to second base would make the duo all the more valuable.

“I think it gives it a more natural feel for what our game is supposed to look like,” Swanson said of the shift. “There’s a reason (second and shortstop) have always been premium defensive positions in the game’s history. It almost gave each other a gut check in terms of understanding baseball and anticipating where balls are going to go and how to make adjustments. I thought we did such a good job of that and always being in each other’s ear of where we wanted to be in order to maximize each other’s range.”

It should also be noted that the team’s solid overall defense looked shaky at times during a late-season collapse. However the organization responds to that disappointment, these three players will be important pieces for the future. — Patrick Mooney, Cubs beat writer

Required reading

(Photo: Gregory Fisher / USA Today)