Blue Jays field two finalists for Gold Glove award

Rawlings announced the finalists for the 2017 Gold Glove Awards and both Kevin Pillar and Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays were nominated for the honour.

The winners of the award for fielding excellence will be revealed on November 07th and aired on ESPN. The will mark the third time that Kevin Pillar has been nominated losing on both previous occasions to Kevin Kiermaier of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Pillar is nominated this time around with Lorenzo Cain and Byron Buxton as Kiermaier missed a considerable amount of time this season with a hairline fracture in his hip. Pillar will be in tough once again as Buxton compiled 24 defensive runs saved compared to 15 by Pillar and 5 by Cain.

Infielders and outfielders must have played defence for 698 innings through their team’s 138th contests to be eligible for nomination.

Marcus Stroman was nominated for the first time and will be up against Chris Sale and Alex Cobb for the golden honour. The finalists should be relieved that Dallas Keuchel was not nominated as the Astros hurler has won the award consecutively for the past three seasons.

The former infielder tweeted that this is one of the few awards he has always wanted and that he doesn’t win this one, he promises he’ll get one soon.

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In order for a pitcher to be eligible for the award, they must have pitched 138 innings by his team’s 138th game. The last Blue Jays player to take home the award was R.A. Dickey in 2013.

The American League finalists for the other positions are as follow:

Catcher: Yan Gomes, Martin Maldonado, Salvador Perez

First Base: Carlos Santana, Eric Hosmer, Mitch Moreland

Second Base: Brian Dozier, Ian Kinsler, Dustin Pedroia

Third Base: Manny Machado, Jose Ramirez, Evan Longoria

Shortstop: Elvis Andrus, Andrelton Simmons, Francisco Lindor

Left Field: Brett Gardner, Alex Gordon, Justin Upton

Right Field: Kole Calhoun, Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge

Next: Blue Jays blockbuster with Padres could shore up needs

Here is hoping that a third time is a charm for “Superman” and he can finally be recognized for his defensive supremacy and library of web gems.