As Utley’s Hall of Fame resume continues to be tested with the voting ongoing, one piece of hardware is missing, but the stats say that should not be the case.
Yes, we have reached this point of the offseason. It’s the time when Tyles is scouring over statistics and random info. On the offensive side of things, Chase Utley is one of the best 2B to ever play the game. At his peak overall he was probably one of the five best players in the sport. One award he never received was a Gold Glove which is odd as, from memory, he is remembered as a great fielder. Guys like Brandon Phillips and Orlando Hudson were just labeled better fielders and took the awards from him in his prime. I was scrolling through Twitter this morning when I discovered this tweet that got me to thinking:
Now, while a different position, we all know Derek Jeter is the most overrated defensive player in MLB history, but this got me thinking. If Chase was this much better than Jeter, in hindsight how does Utley stack up to the players who won the award over him at his position? For the sake of this, we will solely focus on his prime from 2005-2009 before his knees started to deteriorate.
2005 Winner: Luis Castillo
Utley outperformed Castillo. He played 15 more games at the position and he had substantially more putouts (296 to 245) and more assists (376 to 352). When we step into the more accurate, more advanced stats Utley clears again. Castillo’s Total Zone Rating (Rtot) was 8, and Utley’s was 11. When it comes to Defensive Runs Saved Above Average (Rdrs) Hudson had 7… Chase Utley had 20! This award appeared to fall victim to a similar trend with Gold Gloves which is familiarity. Once you win one of these, it is much more likely you will win another one and Castillo won in both 2003 and 2004. Utley was new to the scene as 2005 was his breakout season. It could be that or maybe it is because the Phillies had a Gold Glove winner already in Bobby Abreu. Utley was the substantially better fielder but came up short.
2006 Winner: Orlando Hudson
Chase led all of baseball in putouts despite having fewer chances than Hudson (357 to 310). Hudson did lead the league in assists. Hudson’s Rtot was 2, while Utley had an 8. Hudson had an impressive Rdrs of 13, but that was still five less than Utley who had 18. It is unclear why Utley was not considered here.
2007 Winner: Brandon Phillips
Phillips, like Hudson, was also a great fielder, but his numbers do not match up with Utley’s. Phillips led the league in putouts (341 to 289) and assists (433 to 372), but the advanced stats tell a different story. Utley had a 9 Rtot for the season, and Phillips had a -6! When it comes to Rdrs Phillips sported a 9. Utley doubled him up at 18 Rdrs. Again it remains unclear why Utley did not get consideration. The Phillies had 2 Gold Glove winners: Aaron Rowand and Jimmy Rollins, so the league might have been against too many Gold Gloves on one team.
2008 Winner: Brandon Phillips
Utley, just like Phillips the year prior, led all of baseball in putouts (340 to 298) and assists (463 to 401), but this time that did not appear to matter for some reason. Utley had an Rtot of 12 to Phillips -1. I mean what are we doing here? Phillips had an impressive Rdrs of 30 though… wait, that was Utley who had 30, Phillips had only 13! This one might be the most egregious decision made. Utley played 19 more games than Phillips at 2B and by almost every metric was better. No disrespect to Phillips, but he appeared to have won the award because he won it the previous year. The Phillies again had two Gold Glove winners (Rollings/Victorino) and it is possible this is what squeezed Utley out. There is an argument Utley was robbed of an MVP this season as well, but that is a conversation for another time.
2009 Winner: Orlando Hudson
You have heard this story before. Utley again led the league in putouts (354 to 325). He also led all of baseball with a 10 Rtot to Hudson’s 4, and stop me if you’ve heard this already, Utley had a higher Rdrs at 12 to Hudson’s 6. Again, is this because Victorino and Rollins won Gold Gloves and the league did not want to give the Phillies three of them? I don’t know.
Utley’s Career Defensive Dominance
So as seen above, Utley’s prime is filled with elite defense that was never rewarded for some reason. Despite his knees starting to fail him in 2010, he still outperforms the 2010 winner Brandon Phillips. Orlando Hudson and Brandon Phillips took 4 out of 5 Gold Gloves during Utley’s prime and by their own rights were incredible fielders. Their combined career Rtot at 2B was 16 and they had combined 120 Rdrs. Utley ALONE had a career Rtot of 60 and Rdrs of 123! Chase Utley was a better fielder than two of the best fielders of a generation combined, and he did that while being a top 10 hitter in the league. Those cumulative stats also factor in the back 8 years of his career when he was only around a league-average fielder solely due to his injuries. Utley’s defense took a sharp decline after 2010 due to his health.
What kept Chase away from these awards? There are probably two main factors; Phillies fatigue and old-school voting. In 2005/2006, Chase maybe hadn’t established himself enough, but in 2007-2009, the Phillies were the talk of the league and maybe Utley got lost in the shuffle behind guys like Rollins, Howard, and Hamels. Utley, in a different lens, was such a good hitter that maybe the voters just overlooked his fielding. Or, as previously stated, they were hesitant to give him the award because multiple Phillies were winning it already almost every year. The other side was the mentality of the voters at the time. While the advanced stats favor Utley, the traditional stats are murkier. Hudson only made 88 career errors and had a fielding percentage of .983%. Phillips made 110 career errors and had a career fielding percentage of .983%. This is where Utley slips a bit. While the fielding percentage is right there at .982%, he made 147 errors. Those metrics do not tend to truly show a great fielder, as fielding percentage is inherently flawed and errors are arbitrary and solely scoring decisions that can change daily.
A Case for Cooperstown
I do not have to convince you all that Chase Utley was really good, especially not in this city. However, Chase finds himself staring down the opportunity of Cooperstown. Many of the voters put value on individual accolades and, for whatever reason, he never got this one which could hurt his voting odds. From 2003-2018 Chase Utley has the highest Defensive WAR of any 2B at 17.3. His 131 fielding runs rank 5th all-time amongst 2B ALL TIME. If Utley played today and produced the numbers he did, the advanced stats would have carried him to at least one Gold Glove. Utley will always be remembered for his lightning-fast swing, sneaky power, giving the Mets fits, 5 Silver Sluggers, 6 All-Star Appearances, 5 homerun World Series, and a World Series Title. He is the best 2B in Phillies history, but examining the numbers closer, it should be noted that he was also one of the best fielding 2B to ever step on the field, despite the lack of Golden Gloves in his trophy case.
Is Chase Utley one of the best 2B to ever play the game? Should he have won a Golden Glove? Will he make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.
