A rookie Cardinal expected to stay golden for years to come is in position to begin his reign just as a veteran teammate, the standard at third base for a decade, returns to extend his after a one-year absence.
Shortstop Masyn Winn is a finalist, and the likely favorite, for Rawlings’ Gold Glove Award in the National League, the company announced Tuesday morning in St. Louis. He is joined in the list of finalists by Nolan Arenado at third and Brendan Donovan at utility fielder. Donovan is making a play for his second career Gold Glove at the relatively new utility fielder honor. A 10-time Gold Glove-winning third baseman, Arenado’s furious fielding in the second half returned him to the finalist list at a position he dominated for an era.
The next Cardinal to win a Gold Glove will be the 100th in club history.
No other major-league club has more.
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If he wins at shortstop, Winn will be only the second Cardinals rookie to claim a Gold Glove in his first season of eligibility, joining Donovan, who won the Gold Glove at utility fielder in 2022.
At the All-Star break, Arenado had a minus-3 Defensive Runs Saved at third base. In the months that followed, he stormed back into contention for the Gold Glove Award with a plus-9 DRS in the second half. Arenado’s 10 Gold Gloves at third base rank second with Mike Schmidt behind only Brooks Robinson’s 16. An 11th Gold Glove would put Arenado alone in second place. He’s already the first infielder in major-league history to begin his career with 10 consecutive Gold Glove awards.
That’s something for Winn to reach for.
Winn, 22, led all major-league shortstops with a plus-14 Defensive Runs Saved, according to Sports Info Solutions’ calculations and defense tracking. That stood out from the other finalists at his position: Colorado’s Ezequiel Tovar (plus-9 DRS) and the Cubs’ Dansby Swanson (plus-7 DRS). Each of the other finalists, however, led shortstops in another advanced metric. Swanson, who has twice won the NL Gold Glove Award at shortstop, has strong numbers when it comes to Outs Above Average and he is tops for shortstops in defensive Wins Above Replacement (dWAR), per FanGraphs, at 18.9. That put him ahead of Tovar’s 16.6 and Winn’s 8.6. Tovar led in Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), with a 11.2 ahead of Swanson’s 3.3 and Winn’s minus-1.7.
The metrics do reward Winn's ability to turn double plays, an edge he has because of his arm strength.
What leads to Winn’s lower metrics in these other two categories is the difference in errors. Winn committed 18 this past season, while Tovar had eight and Swanson five. If there’s a drag on Winn’s lead for the award it’s there. But in the past decade, voters and metrics have adjusted to recognize that errors can be an unreliable gauge for a fielder.
In the past decade, Rawlings has modernized the voting for Gold Glove awards to utilize statistics as part of the decision in addition to ballot submitted by coaches and managers from each league. The statistics used by Rawlings lean away from the traditional stats such as errors and fielding percentage and into ones like the Defensive Runs Saved that heighten Winn's candidacy.
With his spring-loaded arm, Winn also has the highlights that run on repeat for voters.
“I don’t know if it will be this year, but if he doesn’t win a Gold Glove, I’ll be very surprised,” teammate Paul Goldschmidt said earlier this season. “He’s been more than his arm. Just has great range and makes really good plays out there. But, yeah, obviously his arm sticks out. Some of the double plays he comes across, he throws a guy out where I think most guys aren’t doing that. He’s made some plays in the hole – diving plays. Just all-around played great defense.”
All three finalists for the award at third base in the NL are from Orange County, California – a hotbed for the hot corner. Arenado and Matt Chapman overlapped briefly as teammates at El Toro High.
A four-time winner of the Gold Glove in the American League, Chapman is the favorite to win the award in his first year in the National League. For the Giants, he led all third basemen with a plus-17 DRS. Ryan McMahon, who took over at third most of the time since Arenado left Colorado, had a plus-10. Last year’s winner at third base who dethroned Arenado’s decadelong run, Ke’Bryan Hayes of Pittsburgh, did not reach the list of finalists in 2024.
In his first season back from elbow surgery, Donovan played at least an inning at four different positions, while primarily shifting between second base and left field. Versatility is a factor in voting for the award, and covering more ground at more positions can lead to the Gold Glove. Donovan, overall, was a plus fielder at second base, and finished even with DRS with all of his positions combined.
And while errors can be misleading because it does not always take into account the range of the fielder or difficult of each play, Donovan did not commit an error in 817 innings in left field. In nearly 1,240 innings overall and moving around in the field, he had only two errors – one fielding at third base and one throwing at second base.
In 2021, the Cardinals became the first major-league team to win five individual Gold Glove awards, and that led to Rawlings presenting them with a team Gold Glove honor.
Two years later, in 2023, the Cardinals did not have a Gold Glove winner for the first time since 2017. Only once since 1957, when Rawlings began the award, have the Cardinals gone back-to-back seasons without at least one Gold Glove winner. That was 2016 and 2017. Either Winn, Donovan, or Arenado winning in 2024 would avoid these seasons being the second time.
As a team, the Cardinals finished 13th in the majors and fifth in the National League with a plus-29 DRS. They were bogged down by a minus-11 in right field and buoyed by a plus-12 at shortstop.
Below are listed the finalists for the honors, by league and position.
Pitcher, NL: Luis Severino, Mets; Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia; Chris Sale, Atlanta.
Pitcher, AL: Cole Ragans, Kansas City; Seth Lugo, Kansas City; and Griffin Canning, Angels.
Catcher, NL: Patrick Bailey San Francisco; Gabriel Moreno, Arizona; Will Smith, Dodgers.
Catcher, AL: Freddy Fermin, Kansas City; Cal Raleigh, Seattle; Jake Rogers, Detroit.
First base, NL: Bryce Harper, Philadelphia; Matt Olson, Atlanta; Christian Walker, Arizona.
First base, AL: Ryan Mountcastle, Baltimore; Nathaniel Lowe, Texas; Carlos Santana, Minnesota.
Second base, NL: Ketel Marte, Arizona; Brice Turang, Milwaukee; Bryson Stott, Philadelphia.
Second base, AL: Nicky Lopez, White Sox; Marcus Semien, Texas; Andres Gimenez, Cleveland.
Third base, NL: Nolan Arenado, Cardinals; Ryan McMahon, Colorado; Matt Chapman, San Francisco.
Third base, AL: Ernie Clement, Toronto; Jose Ramirez, Cleveland; Alex Bregman, Houston.
Shortstop, NL: Masyn Winn, Cardinals; Dansby Swanson, Cubs; Ezequiel Tovar, Colorado.
Shortstop, AL: Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City; Anthony Volpe, Yankees; Brayan Rocchio, Cleveland.
Left field, NL: Ian Happ, Cubs; Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Arizona; Brandon Marsh, Philadelphia.
Left field, AL: Alex Verdugo, Yankees; Colton Cowser, Baltimore; Steven Kwan, Cleveland.
Center field, NL: Jacob Young, Washington; Brenton Doyle, Colorado; Blake Perkins, Milwaukee.
Center field, AL: Jarren Duran, Boston; Jake Meyers, Houston; Daulton Varsho, Toronto.
Right field, NL: Jake McCarthy, Arizona; Sal Frelick, Milwaukee; Mike Yastrzemski, San Francisco.
Right field, AL: Wilyer Abreu, Boston; Juan Soto, Yankees; Jo Adell, Angels.
Utility fielder, NL: Brendan Donovan, Cardinals; Enrique Hernandez, Dodgers; Jared Triolo, Pittsburgh.
Utility fielder, AL: Mauricio Dubon, Houston; Willi Castro, Minnesota; Dylan Moore, Seattle.
Winners will be announced Nov. 3.
Derrick Goold
Lead baseball writer