Even though the Postseason is still underway, Awards Season is just around the corner. This means that names are trickling in for prizes such as the Golden Gloves. Rawlings has announced the finalists for each position and it turns out the Braves will have two players in the running to take home some hardware this fall.
Both Nick Allen and Matt Olson have been named finalists at shortstop and first base, respectively.
Going by the stats used by Statcast, both Allen and Olson deserve to be here and Olson should be an overwhelming favorite. Yes, Nick Allen ultimately lost his job after the Braves acquired Ha-Seong Kim, but that was solely because of his bat. Allen was fantastic with the glove at shortstop for most of the season, as he finished the year with 17 OAA (third among qualified shortstops and second in the National League, behind only fellow NL finalist Masyn Winn’s 21 OAA) and a Fielding Run Value of 12 (again third among qualified shortstops and second only to Winn in the NL).
When it comes to DRS, Allen also ranked third in that category with 12 and again that was good for second in the NL – this time behind Mookie Betts, whose best-in-baseball among 17 DRS shortstops likely landed him on the finalist list alongside Allen and Winn, as he trails well behind those two in OAA and Fielding Run Value. Regardless, Nick Allen clearly deserves to be among the finalists for NL shortstops in the Gold Glove category.
Meanwhile, this is nothing new for Matt Olson. He has already won two Gold Gloves in the AL with the Oakland Athletics and appears to be in a good position to pick up his third career Gold Glove and his first in the NL. Defense was one of his calling cards upon arrival in Atlanta and it appears he has finally put together a season that will earn him a third Gold Glove. Olson led baseball in Fielding Run Value among first basemen with an FRV of 8, which was also good enough to also rank him third among all qualified corner infielders in that same category. Olson led the NL in OAA with 9 in that department and he absolutely smoked the field in DRS with a whopping 17 in that department for the season – Ty France came in second with 9.
Matt Olson will have to deal with Spencer Steer (who deserves to be there) and Bryce Harper (who is a first baseman), and it would be hard to make a real argument for either of those two over Olson. Olson was arguably the best first baseman in all of baseball in 2025 and it wasn’t just because of what he did at the plate; he was a great player last season and it certainly seems like he’s the favorite to earn another Gold Glove as a result of that excellence.
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