This Blue Jays Gold Glove snub is one of the biggest omissions in the team's history

The Toronto Blue Jays were looking to add a third Commissioners Trophy to their trophy case this season, but came up just short. But there were plenty of guys on the roster who were up for some individual hardware as well.

George Springer walked away with a Silver Slugger award, as announced live and exclusively on The Baseball Insiders YouTube channel. Springer took home the award for his production as a Designated Hitter in 2025, and was completely deserving of the honour. However, there was another Blue Jay who appeared to be a lock for a different award, but got beat out completely unexpectedly.

Alejandro Kirk doesn't add a Gold Glove award in 2025

Alejandro Kirk has been widely regarded as one of the best defensive catchers in the game for the last few seasons, but has yet to take home a Gold Glove award for his efforts and that will continue this season. Even though in 2025 almost all of his metrics placed him far above his competition, the voters determined that rookie Dillon Dingler of the Tigers should be awarded this year's GG.

Dingler had a great year as he ranked in the 85th percentile or higher in StatcastBlocks Above Average (+10, 95th), Caught Stealing Above Average (+4, 85th) and framing(+7, 91st). He also ranked in the 95th percentile in Fielding Run Value (FRV) (+12). But Kirk was better in those categories.

Kirk led in Blocks Above Average (21), Catcher Blocking Runs (5), Catcher Framing Runs (16), Fielding Run Value (22) and he had the highest FRV in the AL, and more Defensive Runs Saved (9) than Platinum Glove winning shortstop Bobby Witt Jr (3). You would think that with the advanced metrics we have in today's game, the voters would be able to get these awards right. Unfortunately, Kirk joins a list of former Blue Jays who may have been robbed of awards in the past.

That list includes several Blue Jays who probably should have been league MVP award winners; John Olerud (1993), Carlos Delgado (2003), and José Bautista (2010, 2011). While Dave Stieb was denied of a couple of Cy Young awards.

In '93 Olerud finished third in MVP voting behind Frank Thomas and Olerud's teammate Paul Molitor. Thomas had Olerud beat in the power category with 41 home runs, although that didn't even lead the league behind Ken Griffey Jr.'s 46. Olerud led the league with a .363 batting average, .473 OBP and 1.072 OPS and had the second highest bWAR at 7.8 to go along with 24 home runs. Molitor led the league with 211 hits and slashed .332/.402/.509 with 22 home runs.

A decade later, Delgado finished second to Alex Rodriguez. While A-Rod had him beat in bWAR 8.4 to 5.9 (although noone was looking at this stat at the time), Delgado had A-Rod beat in a couple of meaningful categories, including batting average (.302 - .298), OBP (.426 - .396) and OPS (1.019 - .995). He also had 145 RBIs compared to Rodriguez's 118, but A-Rod did out-homer Delgado 47-42, out-hit Delgado 181-172 and scored 124 runs compared to Delgado's 117.

In 2010 Bautista led the league with 54 home runs and finished second with 124 RBIs while being the only guy to walk 100 times of any of the players who received any MVP votes. He finished sixth in bWAR (7.0) and trailed MVP Josh Hamilton in the other hitting categories, but still got 42% of the share, finishing fourth behind Hamilton, Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano. Probably a fair spot for a guy that basically came out of nowhere and took the league by surprise.

The following year, Bautista got robbed by the voters as his 2011 might have been even more impressive than his 2010 campaign. He led the league in home runs again (43) while also leading in walks (132), slugging (.608) and OPS 1.056. Bautista's .447 OBP was second in the league just one point behind Cabrera's .448, and his .302 batting average was the third highest among players who hit at least 30 home runs that season.

But alas, they gave the MVP award to Justin Verlander, that years Cy Young award winner who had a phenomenal season, but it's very debatable as to whether he should have earned both trophies considering Bautista's monster year.

Last, but not least, is Stieb, who should have won at least one Cy Young Award in the mid 1980s, and arguably should have won three. In 1982, Stieb was already a two-time All-Star at 24 years-old and he reached new heights by leading the league in innings pitched (288.1), 19 complete games, and five shutouts. He led the league with a 7.6 bWAR and had 141 strikeouts. He didn't make the All-Star team that year though, and finished fourth in Cy Young voting, behind Pete Vuckovich (2.8 bWAR, 18-6, 3.34 ERA, 105 SO).

In 1983 he put up another tremendous season but didn't even finish with a single Cy Young vote even though he beat the winner, Chicago's LaMarr Hoyt in every statistical category except for the win-loss record. Hoyt went 24-10, while Stieb went 17-12. But Stieb produced a 7.0 bWAR, higher than anyone who did get a vote and Stieb's 187 strikeouts were more than any of the finalist's except Jack Morris.

In 1984, Stieb had one of the best single seasons of the entire decade with a 7.9 bWAR, but finished seventh in the Cy Yong voting as the award was one by a reliever, Willi Hernandez. In 1985, Stieb finally led the league in a stat the voters of the day should have cared about. His 2.48 ERA was the best in the AL, but it was another seventh place finish as Bret Saberhagen took home the hardware.

While some of these snubs stand out more than others, Kirk's miss on not being awarded the Gold Glove for 2025 certainly fits in with this group.