Nicky Lopez gives White Sox a Gold Glove finalist, at least for a few weeks

The last White Sox player to win a Gold Glove during a standard 162-game season was unceremoniously removed from the 40-man roster by the non-tender deadline.

If the only White Sox Gold Glove finalist in this year's group ends up winning the honors next month, he'll likely meet the same fate.

Which makes it fitting that they play the same position.

This morning, Nicky Lopez was named as an AL Gold Glove finalist at second base, which is the same position listed on the Gold Glove Yolmer Sánchez won back in 2019.

The White Sox ended up outrighting Sánchez a few weeks later, deciding that the $6.2 million he was projected to earn in his final year of arbitration outweighed the contributions from his sagging bat. They were correct in that estimation, as Sánchez's free agency resulted in a minor-league contract with the Giants over the winter. He ended up on the wrong end of a numbers game in San Francisco, and ended up returning to the White Sox on a minor-league deal halfway into the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Lopez is traveling the same path. He's only projected to earn $5.1 million next season, but considering the Braves were likely to non-tender Lopez after the 2023 season before they traded him to the White Sox in the 5-for-1 Aaron Bummer deal, the relatively lower figure isn't likely to make the difference. Brooks Baldwin and Lenyn Sosa were elbowing their way in for second base playing time after the All-Star break while playing on pre-arbitration salaries, and the Sox are once more cutting payroll.

Plus, Lopez doesn't look all that likely to be the Gold Glove winner, for reasons both within and beyond his control.

Lopez's nomination -- and here's where we note that the "finalist" status is really a marketing ruse since the winners have already been determined -- registers as a small shock even when accounting for the possibility that the White Sox's league-worst defense could still host an above-average individual performance or two. The surprise stems partially from the fact he didn't play nearly as much second base as Marcus Semien and Andrés Giménez, and partially from the fact he didn't grade out nearly as well when he did.

The last column is the SABR Defensive Index, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the selection process, along with votes from managers and coaches. By that ranking system, Lopez finished fifth, with Zack Gelof (2.9) and Richie Palacios (2.4) sneaking ahead of him.

That said, it isn't farfetched to call Lopez the third-best defensive second basemen in the league. The reason he trails the rest of the field in playing time is because he played 344⅔ innings at shortstop. The other infielders listed in this post combined for two total innings at short, with Palacios taking both of them. Put Lopez at second for all of innings in order to run up the best possible score, and it's possible that Lopez finishes third in all metrics.

But that's not the part Lopez was brought on to play for the White Sox, as he was more of a roll of all-purpose middle infield duct tape than an everyday staple at second. And he would have finished a distant third regardless, so while Lopez is a probably a non-tender when all is said and done, it won't be as awkward if and when it happens.