The Milwaukee Brewers have a pair of finalists for the Rawlings Gold Glove award, but reigning Gold Glove winner Carlos Gomez is not one of them.
Catcher Jonathan Lucroy and outfielder Gerardo Parra were named finalists at their respective positions in announcement made by Rawlings on Thursday afternoon.
Yadier Molina of the Cardinals and Russell Martin of the Pirates join Lucroy as finalists at catcher in the National League, while Jason Heyward of the Braves and Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins are Parra's fellow finalists in right field.
The Gold Glove winners will be announced Nov. 4 during an hour-long special on ESPN2.
Lucroy would become the first catcher in Brewers history to win the award. The 28-year-old not only had a stellar season offensively, but he continued to show his vast improvement behind the plate.
Numerous different baseball analytics outlets rank Lucroy as one of the best catchers in baseball at framing pitches. According to FanGraphs.com's metric, Lucroy was by far the best catcher at blocking pitches in 2014. Lucroy also threw out a career-best 25.9 percent of attempted base stealers last season.
After Martin collected the Gold Glove at catcher in the National League in 2007, Molina has won the award six consecutive years. It may be difficult for Lucroy to unseat Molina from the top spot, but the Cardinals catcher did miss nearly two months with a thumb injury.
Acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 31, Parra is aiming to collect the third Gold Glove of his career. He won as a left fielder in 2011 and as a right fielder in 2013.
Parra played 102 games in right field for the Diamondbacks in 2014, but he appeared in just seven games at the position after being traded to the Brewers. Most of Parra's playing time with Milwaukee came in left field, as he split time with Khris Davis.
The 27-year-old committed a career-high seven errors in 2014 with four of those coming in right field. Parra's defensive metrics dropped considerably in 2014, as FanGraphs.com shows his defensive runs saved dropping from 41 to -1, while his UZR fell from 31.1 to 0.1.
FanGraphs.com has Parra credited with two defensive runs saved in right field in 2014, while Heyward has 32 and Stanton has seven.
Gomez became Milwaukee's first Gold Glove winner since 1982 when he took home the award in 2013, but the 28-year-old saw his defensive numbers dip dramatically this past season.
Juan Lagares of the Mets, Billy Hamilton of the Reds and Denard Span of the Nationals were named as the three finalists for the National League in center field.
After setting a single-season record for a center fielder with 38 runs saved on defense in 2013, Gomez was credited with just two runs saved in 2014. In comparison, FanGraphs.com had Lagares with 28 runs saved, Hamilton with 14 and Span with -3.
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