Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr., Ha-Seong Kim both bring home Gold Gloves

calico 11/05/2023

The Padres can feel really good about at least one facet of their team as the offseason begins: Defense.

Fernando Tatis Jr. won an National League Gold Glove in right field and Ha-Seong Kim won as a utility player, a first for both in years in which they switched positions to accommodate Xander Bogaerts’ arrival.

Tatis led all NL defenders with 27 total runs saved, according to Sports Info Solutions, while transitioning from shortstop to right field. He beat out the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and the Nationals’ Lane Thomas.

Kim, meantime, was a finalist at shortstop in 2022 and a finalist at second base this year but ultimately won his first defensive hardware in the United States as a utilityman. Kim ranked 11^th among all defenders with 16 runs saved across time second, shortstop and third base in 2023.

Kim beat out Betts and the Cardinals’ Tommy Edman (La Jolla Country Day) for the cherry on top of a season in which he broke out offensively with 16 homers, 38 steals and a .749 OPS.

Gold Glove winners are decided by combining a vote of coaches and managers and metrics developed by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR Defensive Index).

The SABR Defensive Index had last been made public in mid-August, when Tatis led all defenders with a 16.0 score, more than 4 points better than the next-best defender.

Kim’s 8.3 score was the seventh highest among all NL defenders and tops among the circuit’s second basemen.

Tatis was 19 runs saved better than the next-best right fielder and was tied for second among NL outfielders with 12 assists, behind only Thomas (18).

Tatis was in his first full year in right field. He flirted with the position while trying to play through shoulder dislocations late in 2021, lost all of 2022 to a fractured wrist and steroid suspension and made a full-time transition to right field this year following multiple surgeries and the addition of another middle infielder to the Padres’ mix in Bogaerts.

Likewise, Kim slid over to second base to accommodate Bogaerts’ arrival and ranked fifth with 10 defensive runs saved at second base, according to Sports Info Solutions. He won three straight Gold Gloves in Korea before joining the Padres in 2021.

Here’s each league’s winner at each position: