Kyle Seager on his path from minor-league 2B to Gold Glove 3B

By Brett Miller
Special to 710Sports.com

Even though Kyle Seager was an All-Star for the first time in 2014, the Mariners third baseman wasn’t expecting to win his first Gold Glove following a breakout season.

Much to his surprise, Seager did take home a Gold Glove on Tuesday, becoming the Mariners’ first recipient of the award since Ichiro in 2010. Seager’s path to bringing home the gold was anything but certain, though.

Seager was drafted in the third round in 2009, but while he’d played second base for his entire college career, the Mariners preferred fellow draft pick and North Carolina alum Dustin Ackley at the position. Ackley debuted at second base for the Mariners on June 17, 2011, and Seager’s hot hitting earned him a promotion to Triple-A to fill the void Ackley left in Tacoma. But after playing 54 of his 66 games in Double-A at second base, Seager was being utilized differently at Triple-A Tacoma, playing 11 of 24 games at third base.

“I remember (Rainiers manager Darren Brown) calling me into his office, and I was thinking he was going to tell me why I was playing third, just say, ‘Hey, the more positions you play, the better your chances of making it (to the majors),'” Seager told 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Bob and Groz” Wednesday. “He told me I got called up and I was going to be playing third base, and it all made sense why I’d been playing there the past few days. There was an opening, and I got to play in the big leagues.”

It wasn’t a smooth transition. Before his MLB debut, Seager had played just 50 of his 274 minor league games at third base. Seager made four errors in just 42 games at third base in 2011, and even as he became more experienced, he still struggled at his new position. He committed 13 errors in 2012 and 15 errors in 2013, both seasons in which he was the Mariners’ full-time third baseman. Still, Seager wouldn’t settle for merely being decent, and worked hard to improve his defensive game.

“I really owe a lot to my coaches, especially Chris Woodward. He helped me tremendously.” Seager said.

His work with Woodward, the Mariners’ first-year infield coach, has now paid off with his first Gold Glove award. Seager was able to lower his error total to just eight, and he drastically improved in advanced defensive statistics as well. He bumped up his minus-3.8 Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) in 2013 to an outstanding 10.8 in 2014, and in The Fielding Bible’s Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), Seager improved from minus-8 in 2013 to +10 in 2014.

Seager’s path to a Gold Glove at third base is one of baseball’s most unlikely stories in 2014. When Seager was moved to third base, it was done so out of necessity, rather than the belief that he had the skills to be the best defensive third baseman in the league. He’s has made a career out of proving those who doubt him wrong, though, and in winning a Gold Glove at his new position, Seager did just that again.