Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Flashing leather
Marlins have three finalists for NL Gold Glove awards, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna and Dee Gordon.
The Miami Marlins have chosen not to retain outfield/baserunning coach Lorenzo Bundy, he said.
Bundy, 58, spent the past two seasons in South Florida, part of the coaching contingent that came to Miami from the Dodgers when the organization hired Don Mattingly as manager after the 2015 season. He said he was informed recently by Mattingly and president of baseball operations Michael Hill that the club won’t be renewing his expiring contract.
The Marlins have not solidified their coaching staff for 2018, and more changes are possible. Bundy was among several coaches whose contracts end next week. MLB.com reported Wednesday that bullpen coordinator Jeff Urgelles also won’t return.
“They felt that they could get by [without Bundy], they had to cut back,” Bundy said via phone from Mexico, where he is in his 24th season managing in the Mexican Pacific League. “Nothing was ever said about anything performance-related. I was never told anything like that.”
Bundy said he expected some degree of change to the coaching staff, given the change in ownership from Jeffrey Loria to chairman Bruce Sherman and CEO Derek Jeter.
“That’s baseball,” Bundy said. “Unfortunately, it happened to me this time.”
Through his decades in baseball — starting in 1981, when he was a 21-year-old Rangers minor leaguer — Bundy has been something of a utility coach, never managing in the majors, but doing just about everything else. That includes managing 12 seasons in the minors and more than two decades in Mexico (in the winters), where he has guided seven of eight teams and won three championships. Bundy was also a part of big league coaching staffs for the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Mattingly’s Dodgers.
Bundy worked for the Marlins in several roles from 1995-98. In 1997, when the Marlins won their first World Series, Bundy managed High-A Brevard County, a team that included future big leaguers Ryan Dempster, Randy Winn, Mike Redmond and Matt Treanor.
Gold Glove finalists
Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton, second baseman Dee Gordon and left fielder Marcell Ozuna are finalists for the NL Gold Glove Award at their respective positions. Stanton is competing against the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig and the Cubs’ Jason Heyward, while Gordon is up against DJ LeMahieu of the Rockies and Ben Zobrist of the Cubs. Ozuna’s fellow finalists are Colorado’s Gerardo Parra and Cincinnati’s Adam Duvall.
The winners will be announced Nov. 7, at 9 p.m. on ESPN.
Stanton garnered headlines with 59 homers in his MVP-caliber season, but he was no slouch on defense, regularly throwing runners out on the bases and throwing his body into walls. He had nine outfield assists (tied for first among NL right fielders) and at least two homer-robbing grabs (with several other wallscaling attempts).
For Gordon, a Gold Glove this year would be his second, following his 2015 award. He led all qualified NL second baseman in most advanced defensive metrics, though he lagged behind in more traditional, less telling numbers like fielding percentage and errors.
Ozuna is an interesting case in that this was his first full season in left field. He rated poorly, particularly compared to Parra and Duvall, in FanGraphs’ modern metrics that measure range, but rated well in one that measures his arm and Defensive Runs Saved.
Gold Glove winners are determined by a vote by managers and coaches, plus the SABR Defensive Index, which combines measures from five different defensive data sources and includes factors that rate the defenders arm strength, accuracy and range.
In other end-of-year award news, Stanton finished second for the Sporting News’ Player of the Year honor behind Astros second baseman Jose Altuve. In a panel of 232 major leaguers, 102 voted for Altuve. Stanton received 43 votes.