‘Man of Steal' a Gold Glove finalist

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He’s not nicknamed “Man of Steal” for no reason.

White Sox center fielder Adam Engel was named a finalist for a 2018 Gold Glove Award on Thursday. The other American League contenders are the Angels’ Mike Trout and Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley, Jr.

Engel is most certainly known for his glove and he set his stamp as a contender back in August when he robbed three different hitters of home runs within a one-week span.

On August 6, Engel robbed the Yankees’ Greg Bird of a home run in left-center with a perfectly timed leap at the wall on a towering fly ball. The very next night, Engel robbed Kyle Higashioka of a home run just a few feet to the left of his robbery the previous night. This time, Engel got hang-time at the wall in nearly the same spot Dwayne Wise made “The Catch” in Mark Buehrle’s 2009 perfect game. And finally, on August 12, Engel once more went over the fence, this time robbing Cleveland’s Yonder Alonso of a would-be three-run home run.

In total, Engel saved the White Sox pitching staff SEVEN runs with those three catches…all in a week’s work.

Statcast’s “Outs Above Average” leaderboard pegs Engel as baseball’s fourth best defensive outfielder in 2018, trailing only Harrison Bader, Ender Inciarte and Lorenzo Cain – all of whom play in the National League.

Per Baseball Reference, Engel ranked second in all of the MLB in 2018 with 355 putouts in center field and was top-3 in range factor at the position.

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