The 2017 Fielding Bible Awards have officially been announced. Of the 10 winners this season, three players are first-time Fielding Bible Award winners, while the other seven have been honored for their defensive prowess previously.
Andrelton Simmons made history by becoming the first ever player to win five consecutive Fielding Bible Awards. Unlike in 2016 when Simmons narrowly edged out Brandon Crawford for the award (106 points vs. 105 points), this year Simmons solidified his grip on the shortstop position. His margin of victory of 24 points was the second highest behind only Javier Baez for the multi-position award.
The only unanimous vote this season was for right fielder Mookie Betts, who once again excelled in right field for the Boston Red Sox. He finished with 13 more Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) than the two players tied for second place—Jason Heyward and Yasiel Puig.
The three first-time winners in 2017 were center fielder Byron Buxton, who came within one second place vote of winning the award unanimously; catcher Martin Maldonado, who led all catchers with 22 DRS; and DJ LeMahieu, who tied for the league lead in DRS among second baseman with 8 Runs Saved.
A panel of 12 experts, listed below, examined the 2017 seasons of every defensive player in Major League Baseball and ranked the 10 best players at each position on a scale from 1 to 10. The same scoring technique as the Major League Baseball MVP voting was then used. First place votes received 10 points, second place 9 points, third place 8 points, etc. A perfect score is 120.
One important distinction that differentiates The Fielding Bible Awards from most other baseball awards, such as the Gold Gloves, is that there is only one winner at each position instead of separate winners for each league. The goal of The Fielding Bible Awards is to stand up and say: "Here is the best fielder at this position in Major League Baseball last season." Another key feature of the system is that it also recognizes the runners-up for each position. A complete record of the voting can be found in The Bill James Handbook 2018.
Here are the results of The 2017 Fielding Bible Awards voting: