{"id":88871,"date":"2024-11-03T23:51:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T04:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=88871"},"modified":"2024-11-03T23:51:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T04:51:25","slug":"rockies-shortstop-ezequiel-tovar-2024-gold-glove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/03\/rockies-shortstop-ezequiel-tovar-2024-gold-glove\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockies Shortstop Wins First Career Gold Glove"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Colorado Rockies shortstop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tovarez01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ezequiel Tovar<\/a> won his first career Gold Glove on Sunday. At 23, he became the youngest shortstop in National League history to win a Gold Glove. He beat out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/swansda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dansby Swanson<\/a> of the Chicago Cubs and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/winnma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Masyn Winn<\/a> of the St. Louis Cardinals for the award. His <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/02\/rockies-outfielders-great-july\/\" target=\"_self\">fellow Rockie<\/a>, center fielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doylebr02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brenton Doyle<\/a>, won his second straight Gold Glove, while third baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcmahry01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan McMahon<\/a> was also in the running for his first career Gold Glove. Tovar was one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/42179931\/royals-bobby-witt-jr-14-first-gold-glove-winners-giants-3b-matt-chapman-wins-fifth\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">14 first-timers<\/a> across MLB to win a Gold Glove in 2024, showcasing the young defensive talent currently in baseball.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Ezequiel Tovar is the youngest Gold Glove shortstop in National League history. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XF3o7z8DUC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/XF3o7z8DUC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Rockies\/status\/1853253542016147889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Rockies Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar Wins 2024 Gold Glove<\/h2>\n<h3><b>Tovar\u2019s Historic Defensive Season<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Per <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/mlb\/ask\/last-rockies-shortstop-to-win-a-gold-glove\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Statmuse<\/a>, Tovar is the first Rockies shortstop to win the award since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tulowtr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Troy Tulowitzki<\/a> won in 2011. He joins <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/04\/2009-rockies-18-game-improvement\/\" target=\"_self\">Tulowitzk<\/a>i (2010-11) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/perezne01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Neifi Perez<\/a> (2000) as the only Rockies shortstops to win the award. Per Statcast, Tovar finished with <a  href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/ezequiel-tovar-678662?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">15 outs above average<\/a>, ranking in the 98th percentile.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tovar winning his first Gold Glove is a stamp of approval on his status as one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball. Tovar and McMahon continue to lock down the left side of the infield for the Rockies. He<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> finished with a fielding percentage of .988 for the second straight season and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">finished first or second in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/leagues\/majors\/2024-fielding-leaders.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">numerous defensive categories<\/a> in the National League:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">435 assists &#8211; first<\/span><\/li>\n<li>113 double plays turned &#8211; first<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a018 Total Zone Runs &#8211; second<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a04.25 Range factor &#8211; first<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Bright Future As a Rockie<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rockies always knew that Tovar was glove-ready when he came out of the minor leagues. They just needed to see his offense improve. Tovar was <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/stats\/_\/name\/col\/colorado-rockies\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vastly improved offensively<\/a> in 2024, leading the Rockies in batting average (.269), RBI (78), home runs (26), and hits (176). His all-around stellar play led to a team-leading WAR of 3.7.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rockies wisely locked Tovar down as their shortstop of the future, signing him to a seven-year, $63.5 million contract extension before the 2024 season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a long season for the Rockies, as they finished with 100-plus losses (61-101) for the second straight season. But Tovar is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/16\/rockies-ezequiel-tovar-strong-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">a bright spot<\/a>, emerging as one of the best young talents in the league. The Rockies have a recent history of excellence at the position in Tulowitzki and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/storytr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trevor Story<\/a>. Tovar is well on his way to joining them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar won his first career Gold Glove on Sunday. At 23, he became the youngest shortstop in National League history to win a Gold Glove. He beat out Dansby Swanson of the Chicago Cubs and Masyn Winn of the St. Louis Cardinals for the award. His fellow Rockie, center fielder Brenton [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5354,"featured_media":88904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1071,35],"tags":[3936,488,6154,3711,3041,168,624,467],"class_list":["post-88871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rockies","category-mlb","category-news","tag-brenton-doyle","tag-dansby-swanson","tag-ezequiel-tovar","tag-masyn-winn","tag-ryan-mcmahon","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-trevor-story","tag-troy-tulowitzki"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}