By MATT PIKE
The 2025 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners have been announced and two Kansas City Royals claimed the honor, and Masyn Winn became the youngest St. Louis Cardinal to win the award announced on Sunday night.
Established in 1957, the Gold Glove Award honors the best defensive player at each position in each league. The voting process is made up of MLB managers and coaches and the sabermetrics community. Managers and coaches vote only within their own league and cannot vote for players on their own team.
The Royals’ left side of the diamond was good as gold in 2025. Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and third baseman Maikel Garcia won an American League Gold Glove Award at their respective positions this season.
It’s the first time in franchise history that the Royals’ left side of the infield has won together in the same season and just the third time that a team’s left side of the infield has won together since 2003, following the ’03 Cardinals (Scott Rolen and Edgar Renteria) and ’13 Orioles (Manny Machado and J.J. Hardy).
This is Witt’s second consecutive Gold Glove, as he becomes the first Royals player to win multiple Gold Gloves at shortstop. The only other player to win one is Alcides Escobar (2015). Garcia meanwhile took home the honor for the first time in his career. He is just the second Kansas City player to win a Gold Glove at third base, joining George Brett in 1985.
Witt recorded 24 Outs Above Average this season, according to Baseball Savant, tied with Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong for best among defensive players in MLB. Witt committed 10 errors, the fewest in his career at shortstop, and posted a .983 fielding percentage, the highest of his career. Witt also logged 1,340 innings at shortstop, third most in the AL at that position behind Seattle’s J.P. Crawford and Boston’s Trevor Story.
Garcia’s 18 OAA as a third baseman this season easily led the AL at the position, 11 more than Cleveland’s José Ramírez. Garcia committed just seven errors at third base for a .980 fielding percentage across the 1,144 2/3 innings he logged at the hot corner. Additionally, Garcia recorded 13 Defensive Runs Saved as a third baseman, according to FanGraphs, second most among all players at the position behind National League Gold Glove Award winner Ke’Bryan Hayes (19), who spent the first half of the season with Pittsburgh before he was traded to Cincinnati.
Center fielder Kyle Isbel was a finalist at his position, but Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela won the award.
At 23 years, 191 days at season’s end, Winn is the franchise’s youngest Gold Glove winner, edging out third baseman Ken Reitz (24 years, 96 days) in 1975, per Elias Sports. Also, Winn is the fifth-youngest shortstop to win the award behind Anthony Volpe (2023), Alan Trammell (1980), Francisco Lindor (2016) and Ezequiel Tovar (2024).
Winn also became the 100th Gold Glove winner in Cardinals history, far and away the most in MLB since Rawlings introduced the award in 1957. Winn joined Édgar Rentería (2002-03), Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith (1982-92) and Dal Maxvill (1968) as the only Cards shortstops to win the award.
In his second full season, Winn made his biggest strides defensively while dazzling almost nightly. Limited to 129 games played (127 starts) because of a meniscus tear in his right knee that required arthroscopic surgery in late September, Winn committed just three errors in 501 total chances. His three errors at arguably the game’s most demanding position match the totals of Cal Ripken Jr. (1990) and Omar Vizquel (2000), the fewest by an MLB shortstop, per MLB.com research.
Winn led all of baseball in outs above average through most of 2025 before missing the final two-and-a-half weeks of the regular season. He ultimately finished tied with Ke’Bryan Hayes and Ceddanne Rafaela at 21, trailing only Pete Crow-Armstrong (24) and Bobby Witt Jr. (24).
Cardinals rookie Victor Scott II, a finalist for the NL’s Gold Glove Award in center field, lost out to Crow-Armstrong. Scott II finished with 17 outs above average, the third most among MLB outfielders.
Each winner of the Gold Glove can be voted on for the Rawlings Platinum Glove award. Fans can vote for the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award now through Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 11:59 p.m. ET. The Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winners will be unveiled at the Rawlings Gold Glove Award Ceremony in New York City, on Friday, Nov. 7.
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