Mets' Mendoza 'shocked' Lindor wasn't Gold Glove finalist
New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was surprised when star shortstop Francisco Lindor wasn't named a finalist for this year's Gold Glove Awards.
"If you ask him, he's not here to win personal awards. He's here to win the whole thing, which is the World Series," Mendoza said Tuesday, according to SNY. "He's an elite defender. I was shocked when he wasn't even in the finals."
Dansby Swanson of the Chicago Cubs, Ezequiel Tovar of the Colorado Rockies, and Masyn Winn of the St. Louis Cardinals were announced as the three finalists for National League shortstops on Tuesday.
"I thought I had a good defensive year, but I guess there's other players that had a better defensive year than me," Lindor said Tuesday, per SNY. "At the end of the day, I'm trying to win a World Series."
Lindor finished second to Swanson in FanGraphs' defensive WAR this season and ranked in the 98th percentile in Baseball Savant's outs above average. The 30-year-old is a two-time Gold Glove winner, but he hasn't won since 2019 when he was a member of the Cleveland Guardians.