I know this year’s Gold Glove winners were announced last week, but I still can’t get over how voting shook out. Javier Baez, somehow, wasn’t even a finalist among National League shortstops. The Chicago Cubs star isn’t just the slickest fielding shortstop since Ozzie Smith. El Mago did something you see maybe once in a generation. He changed the way the game is played.
Before Baez burst onto the scene during the 2015 postseason, infielders mostly utilized the swipe tag. It certainly looked good, a kind of ole’ flash of the leather to tag a runner.