Ahmed’s journey to Gold Glove finalist
Shortstop was lightly recruited by colleges
University of Connecticut baseball coach Jim Penders can still recall the image: Nick Ahmed, then a teenager – then, as now, all arms and legs – taking the throw to second and slapping down a tag between innings. Penders sounds surprised he noticed it then but not that he still remembers it today.
“You’re in the dugout, you’re paying attention, but you’re not necessarily going to notice something like that between innings,” Penders said. “But he did it so fast and with such diligence – the attention to detail was evident – your eyes were naturally drawn to follow him the rest of the camp session. I wanted to see everything he did after that.”
It’s a sentiment that applies today when Ahmed is standing at shortstop for the Diamondbacks. That day is the first Penders can remember seeing Ahmed play, and it was the first thing that came to mind for him this week when he considered the validation Ahmed might receive for his defensive excellence: a Gold Glove award.
It would make for an interesting rung on his career arc: Coming out of high school, Ahmed had only one Division I school – Penders’ UConn program – that was willing to give him a chance to play shortstop.
A decade later, here he is in line to potentially win his first Gold Glove, an accolade that will be announced during an awards show that airs Sunday at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
Speaking over the phone this week, Ahmed said taking home the award “would be cool,” though he added he doesn’t seek out “external validation” when evaluating his performance.
“I do a pretty good amount of self-reflection on my own,” he said. “That being said, I’ve followed this award since I was a little kid. It’s a prestigious thing and is highly recognized throughout the sport. It would be pretty neat to win knowing how many great players there are.”
Penders does not claim to have seen something others missed when projecting Ahmed’s future. While other schools were unsure if Ahmed would ever hit enough, UConn gave Ahmed a chance to show he could. Penders argues it’s the opposite of clairvoyance that brought Ahmed to his program.
“I’m not that smart,” Penders said. “I just don’t ever say that a 16-year-old can’t do something. We try in our recruiting to never say, ‘You can’t’ and to always say, ‘You may be able to’ or, ‘You’re going to have a chance to in our program.’ ”
Halfway through his freshman year, Ahmed took over at short for an injured Mike Olt. He never looked back. Penders recalls Olt as a “very good college shortstop,” but even Olt realized when he returned from injury a couple of weeks later that the position was no longer his.
“I sat down with Mike,” Penders said, “and I don’t think I got two sentences in. Before I could even get the words out, he goes, ‘Coach, I know. I’m going to third base. Nick’s way better than I am.’ ”
The reasons Ahmed was not heavily recruited as a shortstop out of high school likely had little to do with his defense and more to do with two things. For one, he already was reaching the low-90s off the mound, prompting coaches to show interest in him as a pitcher. Ahmed did not want to go down that road.
“I don’t like to necessarily sit around and do nothing,” he said. “I’m always bouncing around the clubhouse, going to the weight room or the cage. Pitching doesn’t really fit my personality very well.”
The other reason is one that’s all too familiar for Ahmed: People didn’t think he could hit. Those doubts have been with him for years, though he took steps toward quieting them this season, collecting 54 extra-base hits, including 16 home runs, with the Diamondbacks. Ahmed might still be viewed as a limited or subpar hitter, but no one questions whether he can hit enough to stay in the lineup – certainly when not factoring in what he can do defensively.
Ahmed is sure-handed and dependable at shortstop. He has quickness and good range in all directions, and he has a rifle arm that rarely seems to miss its mark. He makes plays both routine and spectacular with regularity, and at a position filled with defensive standouts throughout both leagues, Ahmed rises above.
His performance is reflected both by simply watching him and by the game’s advanced defensive numbers. Ahmed recorded 21 defensive runs saved this year, tied with the Angels’ Andrelton Simmons for the most by a shortstop.
Ahmed was a tick more consistent a defender this year than in previous seasons, but perhaps the biggest reason he’s a Gold Glove finalist for the first time was his health. He missed significant time the past two seasons with hip and hand injuries. He said as long as he’s healthy he expects to be up for the award every year.
“God has given me some special ability and talent and I’ve worked really hard with some really good coaches to hone that talent to make it a special tool or gift or whatever you want to call it,” he said. “I expect myself to go out there and be one of the best shortstops in the league and it’s something I want to continue to get better at.”
For all his natural ability, Ahmed has always been willing to put in the work. He recalls taking ground balls with UConn coach Chris Podeszwa after every practice during the fall of his freshman year, working specifically on making plays on the run.
“I definitely have a little more ability on that side of the ball,” Ahmed said, “but I’ve had to a do a lot of things to maximize my ability to make certain plays that don’t come as naturally to me.”
Ahmed is a finalist at shortstop along with two of his National League West peers in the Giants’ Brandon Crawford and the Padres’ Freddy Galvis. He said he heard from his agent about when the announcement would happen, but he didn’t sound too concerned about watching the awards show as it airs on Sunday.
A win would mean something but nothing more, he said, because of those who doubted him along the way. It would be satisfying, he said. It might be just as satisfying for some of those who were with him along the way.
“It’s just a fulfillment of what we already knew,” Penders said. “He’s the greatest shortstop that I’ve ever seen at our level. And he’d be considered one of the two greatest in major league baseball – this year, anyway, right? It would just confirm that he is the best, which all of us at UConn already know. It would be nice for him. And you know he’s not going to put his feet up. He’s going to work that much harder to go win another next year.”