Beltre, Napoli named Gold Glove finalists

Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre and first baseman Mike Napoli have been named finalists in the American League at their respective positions for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award.  Along with Beltre, Evan Longoria and Manny Machado have been named finalists for the Gold Glove Award for third base.  Eric Hosmer and Mark Teixeira are the other two nominees at first base.

Beltre has long been considered one of the top defensive third basemen in the game, and has won four Gold Glove awards, the most recent being in 2012.  Mike Napoli being a finalist is a little more surprising -- he only started 101 games at first base this year, and part of the justification that was offered for putting him in left field and Mitch Moreland at first base against lefties late in the season was that Moreland was a superior defender at first base.

No other Rangers were among the finalists in the A.L.