Walls has résumé to back Gold Glove nomination

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TAMPA -- The Rays have often touted Taylor Walls as the best defensive shortstop in the Majors. Advanced defensive metrics support Walls’ standing as one of baseball’s top defensive players at any position.

He passes the eye test. He has the numbers. Now, Walls could bring home the hardware to cement his status among the game’s elite defenders.

Last week, Walls was named one of three American League finalists for a Rawlings Gold Glove Award at shortstop. He is up for the award alongside Rangers veteran Corey Seager and Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr.

Walls has been nominated once before, as a utility player in 2023, but he has never won a Gold Glove. This is his best chance yet, and it fittingly comes at the 29-year-old’s preferred position, where the Rays believe he is a game-changing presence.

The winners, determined through a combination of voting by managers and coaches as well as sabermetric statistics, will be announced on Nov. 2 at 8:30 p.m. ET during ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight.”

The Rays haven’t had a Gold Glove winner since 2019, when center fielder Kevin Kiermaier earned his third such honor. Only five Tampa Bay players have won the award: Kiermaier (2015-16, ’19), third baseman Evan Longoria (2009-10, ’17), left fielder Carl Crawford (2010), first baseman Carlos Peña (2008) and pitcher Jeremy Hellickson (2012).

In other words, Walls could become the first middle infielder in franchise history to win a Gold Glove Award.

“I mean, he is unbelievable. When he doesn't make a play, you're like, 'Come on!' Then you go back and look at it, and it was a 0 percent [probability] play. But that's the bar he's set,” third-base coach Brady Williams said earlier this year. “He's set it so high that, if he doesn't make a play, you expected him to make the play -- and that's a testament to him.

“He's not taking pitches off. He's not taking anything off out there. He is ready for the hardest-hit ball, the hardest play imaginable, every single pitch.”

Since he broke into the Majors in 2021, Walls’ Gold Glove case has been hindered by a lack of playing time due to injuries or other shortstops forcing him to move around the infield. It’s a defensive award, but his lack of offense probably diminished his overall profile, as he has the Majors' fourth-lowest OPS (.584) among players with at least 1,000 plate appearances since 2021.

It seemed like that might all work against him again this year. The Rays signed Ha-Seong Kim in February, and Walls sustained a season-ending groin injury in August, finishing with a .599 OPS in 101 games. But Kim’s recovery from season-ending shoulder surgery lingered into July, and what Walls did in the infield before his injury was undeniable.

If anything, Walls’ absence over the final seven weeks may have made the Rays’ belief grow stronger.

“The defense, you appreciate a player like that when they're not available. No knock on the other players, but when you have someone that is that elite playing shortstop defensively, you feel it when they're not there,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said last month.

“Not unlike when Kevin Kiermaier got hurt and you go to someone else --- that's no knock on the next person up, but when you have someone that's that special, usually you appreciate them the most once they're gone, once they're not there.”

Walls produced 18 defensive runs saved, tied for sixth-most among all players, third-most among infielders (behind Ernie Clement and Ke’Bryan Hayes) and more than 14 teams recorded on the year. Seventeen of those defensive runs saved came at shortstop, tied with Mookie Betts for most in the Majors despite Betts playing 49 more games and 557 1/3 more innings at the position.

Of course, this is nothing new for Walls. Since 2021, he has totaled 52 DRS at shortstop, 12 more than any other player despite the fact that he ranks 31st in innings during that stretch. In the same timeframe, he ranks third among all players in the Majors with 9.6 defensive WAR, behind only Hayes and Andrés Giménez.

The Rays have a decision to make at shortstop this offseason. They gave top prospect Carson Williams an unexpected trial run down the stretch, although he’ll likely need more development in Triple-A next year. They could sign another stopgap with more offensive upside, as they tried to do with Kim.

Or they could once again turn to Walls, who should be ready for Spring Training. Whether he wins the Gold Glove Award or not, he has proven the impact he can make in the infield.

“We certainly appreciate him, I'd say, as much as any team,” Neander said. “Taylor Walls is the kind of player that, when he's playing, sometimes it can be hard to appreciate because of how much of his value is the baserunning, kind of the little things within the game.”