Gabriel Moreno and Christian Walker win Gold Gloves

The baseball award season got under way this evening in earnest, with the announcement of the Gold Glove winners, and the National League list saw two Diamondbacks honored.

Christian Walker repeated last year’s victory at the first-base position. The D-backs have a good history at the position, with Paul Goldschmidt having won three times while with Arizona. Walker has continued that tradition and was top-tier at the position this season. He made only two errors all year and the more advanced defensive metrics also rated Walker highly. For example, his 11 OAA (Outs Above Average) was the highest figure of any first baseman in the majors.

Gabriel Moreno completed his tremendous first season with the Diamondbacks by picking up his first Gold Glove. His defense was particularly notable in controlling the running game: he threw out 39% of attempted base stealers. That’s almost twice the MLB average of 20%, and was the highest percentage of any catcher (min 15 SB attempts). But his all-round game is reflected in Moreno also having the MLB best figure of +20 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved). The next-best figure in the NL was +13, by the Giants’ Patrick Bailey. He’s the first Diamondback at the position to win the award, and does so will still only aged 23.

Alek Thomas was also nominated in center, but lost out there to the Rockies’ Brenton Doyle. The full list of NL winners is below

• First base: Christian Walker, D-backs
• Second base: Nico Hoerner, Cubs
• Third base: Ke’Bryan Hayes, Pirates
• Shortstop: Dansby Swanson, Cubs
• Catcher: Gabriel Moreno, D-backs
• Pitcher: Zack Wheeler, Phillies
• Left field: Ian Happ, Cubs
• Center field: Brenton Doyle, Rockies
• Right field: Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres

This week sees the other awards being handed out. Rookie of the Year - likely to be Corbin Carroll, or we riot - is on Tuesday; Manager of the Year on Wednesday; Cy Young is on Thursday; and the MVPs are announced Friday.