Cardinals' history of defensive brilliance leads to milestone award

Few sports teams can boast a history as successful as that of the St. Louis Cardinals, and much of those years of sustained excellence stem from being a team that prides itself on fundamentals like smart baserunning and strong defense. For decades, the team has followed "The Cardinal Way" and abided by the tenets stated in a notebook written by the late George Kissell about how the game should be played.

Masyn Winn is the latest practitioner of the Cardinals' artful glove work, and his peers recognized him as one of the best fielders in the game when he was announced as the winner of the 2025 National League Gold Glove Award at shortstop. Not only is Winn, at 23, the youngest Cardinals player to ever receive the award, but his crowning was also a significant milestone for the franchise.

Winn's award marks the 100th Gold Glove in Cardinals history.

Since the award's inception in 1957, the Cardinals have won the most Gold Gloves of any team in baseball, and Winn's achievement has brought the Cardinals to the century mark in that award. It was a deserved honor, as Winn tied for second in the major leagues in outs above average, with 21, and he likely would have paced the league in that stat had he not missed the last few weeks of the season. Winn and fellow Gold Glove candidate Victor Scott helped the Cardinals snag the top spot in the league in that statistic, with 35 outs above average as a team.

The Cardinals' all-time leader in Gold Gloves is, of course, Ozzie Smith, who won the award an eye-popping 11 times and has lauded Winn's defense while working with the team. Following Smith in the Cardinals' Gold Glove pecking order are catcher Yadier Molina and pitcher Bob Gibson, each taking home the hardware nine times.

The Cardinals are setting out on a rebuild, but Winn should be emerging as a pillar for Chaim Bloom to build the next competitive team around. The upcoming era is likely to be painful for Cardinals fans, but the energy and stupendous defense that Winn looks to bring to the ballpark every day should still give fans optimism for the Cardinals' long-term future.