Cardinals' Masyn Winn robbed of ultimately pointless award

Fan voting continues to be a blight on professional baseball. The All-Star Game has long been a measure of a player's popularity with baseball fans rather than an assortment of the true best players in the game. In 2011, another "honor" was provided to allow fans to influence parts of the game that should be left up to statistics.

That year, baseball introduced the "Platinum Glove" Award, which took all of the winners of that year's Gold Glove Award and allowed fans to vote on one winner from each league to earn the Platinum Glove. In 2025, the American League winner was Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., while the National League award went to San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. However, if statistics had been involved, St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn would likely have been on the short list for this award.

Winn outperformed Tatis in nearly every defensive category.

Winn just received his first of what is likely to be many Gold Glove Awards, and among National League players, Winn tied for second behind Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong in outs above average, with 21, and led all National League shortstops in that category. Tatis, meanwhile, finished with a comparatively meager eight outs above average. Winn also had 17 fielding runs above average, while Tatis had nine. If you prefer more traditional stats, Winn led the major leagues with a .994 fielding percentage, compared with Tatis' .992.

Winn was not the only player who outshone Tatis in the field. The aforementioned Crow-Armstrong paced the National League with 24 outs above average, and the Cardinals' own Victor Scott II, who was a Gold Glove candidate but did not take home the hardware, was 17 outs above average.

Fans might enjoy getting to have a say in these awards, but how many casual baseball supporters are familiar with the defensive metrics needed to make a sound judgment? At least with All-Star voting, fans are provided easily digestible surface-level stats such as batting average and on-base percentage. Giving voters the opportunity to see these defensive stats is a good attempt to make the Platinum Glove respectable, but when the winners are merely the two biggest names among the Gold Glove recipients because of their hitting exploits, it still rings a bit hollow.

The Gold Glove Award is still the most popular defensive award in baseball, and it has a modicum of respectability given the introduction of the SABR defensive index to account for approximately 25% of the selection process, which is added to managers' and coaches' selections of players.

It's a shame that a much more accurate choice of the winners is also the least known. The Fielding Bible Award is a much more statistically inclined award that is voted on by several experts in the sabermetric community, and the voters have their own method of calculating the stats. Although Mookie Betts, not Winn, emerged victorious for the Fielding Bible Award, it's clear via FanGraphs that Betts outperformed Winn in this organization's statistical analysis.

Opposing teams' recognition of Winn's exploits at a premium position allowed him to obtain a Gold Glove to place on his mantel at home. Although Winn may never hit enough to earn universal recognition that would provide him a Platinum Glove, his vacuum of a mitt and hose of an arm should keep the Cardinals content for years.