After bouncing around the major leagues for the first several years of his career, Detroit Tigers' utility player Zach McKinstry found a home in 2023. With that, his year culminated in him being named a finalist for a Gold Glove Award in the American League.
He was named a finalist in the "utility" category alongside Taylor Walls of the Tampa Bay Rays and Mauricio Dubon of the Houston Astros.
You can see the full list of finalists here.
Per an MLB release, here's how the winners are determined:
To determine the winners at the nine standard positions, the 30 MLB managers and up to six coaches from each team vote from a pool of players in their league, excluding players from their own team. These votes comprise 75% of the selection total, with the SABR Defensive Index counting for the other 25%.
For the utility position, Rawlings collaborated with SABR to create a specialized defensive formula separate from the traditional selection process.
The 28-year-old McKinstry played 148 games this season for Detroit after never playing more than 60 in any previous season.
He began his career with the Dodgers in the COVID 2020 season. He played just four games with them that season and then played 60 with LA in 2021. He split 2022 with the Dodgers and Cubs before getting his big chance with Detroit in 2023.
The versatile McKinstry played 56 games in the outfield this season, 52 at third base, 47 at second base and 23 at shortstop.
The Gold Glove winners are announced on Nov. 5th.
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