The Gold Glove finalists were announced Tuesday and the Yankees had three players among them. Two are no surprise and one is reasonable.

Anthony Volpe, who briefly won the AL Gold Glove last season, is again a finalist, along with the Guardians’ Brayan Rocchio and Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals.

Alex Verdugo, who didn’t take his problems at the plate to the field, is a finalist in left field, along with Colton Cowser of the Orioles and Steven Kwan of the Guardians.

The surprise?

Juan Soto, long known for his bat but who arrived in the Bronx last winter with questions about his defense, made the final three in right field, along with Wilyer Abreu of the Red Sox and Jo Adell of the Angels.

“I’m not surprised because I vote on that,” Aaron Boone said of Soto’s selection before Tuesday night’s Game 2 of the ALCS against the Guardians. “We can’t vote for your own guys, but if you get that (ballot information) two, three weeks ago, it shows up on your desk, and they give you numbers there for reference. And he (Soto) was up there, I noticed, on a lot of right-field stuff, in a lot of areas.

One area where Soto particularly excelled was in assists, with 10, including memorably throwing out the game-tying run at the plate in the ninth inning of the Yankees’ season-opening victory over the Astros in Houston.

Boone admitted that Soto had “probably” exceeded his expectations when it came to defense, but that he had also heard before the outfielder arrived for spring training that he “cared” about that side of the ball.

“So if you have a young, athletic guy who enjoys doing it, they have a chance to be good,” Boone said, pointing to the Houston game and also Game 1 of the ALDS when he defeated the Royals Salvador threw away. Perez on the board. “He had a few games there where he struggled to get back with the ball against the wall, but he played a lot there too.”

According to MLB.com, all thirty major league managers and as many as six coaches from their respective teams vote to determine the winners at the nine positions from a group of players in their league, excluding, as Boone mentioned, players from their respective teams. own team. These votes make up 75% of the selection total, while the SABR Defensive Index counts for the remaining 25%.

Verdugo, meanwhile, has started every postseason game thus far, including Tuesday night’s, solely because of his defense. It was for that reason, and that reason alone, that the Yankees went with him over left tackle prospect Jasson Dominguez.

“The second half was a struggle for him offensively, but one thing that has never left him is the glove,” Boone said of Verdugo. “In our stadium here in left field, that’s a big problem.”

Elite company for Stanton

Giancarlo Stanton’s home run in Game 1 of the ALCS gave him 13 home runs in 32 playoff games, making him only the third player in MLB history to hit at least that many home runs in his first 32 career postseason games. The others are Carlos Beltran (14) and Nelson Cruz (14). Those 13 home runs tied Stanton for fifth-most in franchise history, tied with Aaron Judge. Bernie Williams is the franchise leader with 22, followed by Derek Jeter (20), Mickey Mantle (18) and Babe Ruth (15). Of course, the last two didn’t have as many rounds to build those totals, as their blowouts came exclusively in the World Series.