In a season that tested the St. Louis Cardinals’ resolve, one bright spot emerged with dazzling clarity: the glove of shortstop Masyn Winn. On Saturday night, the 23-year-old phenom was announced as the winner of the 2025 Rawlings Gold Glove Award at shortstop, edging out finalists Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Nick Allen of the Atlanta Braves. At just 23 years and 191 days old on the final day of the regular season, Winn etched his name into Cardinals lore as the youngest player in franchise history to earn the prestigious defensive honor.
The Gold Glove, which recognizes the premier defenders in Major League Baseball, has long been a hallmark of excellence at the sport’s most demanding positions. For Winn, it’s validation of a skill set that has turned heads since his high school days in Katy, Texas. Drafted by the Cardinals in the second round (54th overall) of the 2020 MLB Draft out of Kingwood High School, Winn was pegged as a defensive wizard from the start—his rocket arm and instinctive range drawing comparisons to legends like Ozzie Smith, the Hall of Famer who patrolled shortstop for St. Louis from 1982 to 1996 and won 11 Gold Gloves. Winn made his MLB debut in 2023 and quickly became a fixture, but it was his sophomore campaign in 2025 that propelled him to the award’s top tier.
Winn’s defensive dominance this year was nothing short of spectacular. Playing 1,107 innings at shortstop, he fielded 338 ground balls while committing only three errors—the fewest among qualified shortstops league-wide. His +21 Outs Above Average (OAA) tied for third among all position players and ranked fourth overall in baseball, while his 21 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) led all shortstops. These metrics underscore not just raw athleticism but a refined mastery: fewer miscues than his error-prone rookie year (18 in 2024), highlight-reel dives, and laser throws that gun down runners by a mile. As one Cardinals teammate marveled earlier in the season, “I’m serious, he’s the best defender I’ve ever seen … and he’s only getting better.”
The win marks Winn as the fourth Cardinals shortstop to claim the Gold Glove, joining an elite lineage that includes Dal Maxvill (1968), Ozzie Smith (10 times from 1982-1992), and Edgar Renteria (2002-2003). It also brings the franchise’s total Gold Glove tally to 100, a testament to St. Louis’s storied tradition of defensive prowess—think Keith Hernandez’s six consecutive wins at first base in the late 1970s and early 1980s, or Yadier Molina’s nine behind the plate. For a team mired in a disappointing 2025 campaign, Winn’s hardware offers a beacon of hope, signaling the arrival of a cornerstone talent who could anchor the infield for the next decade.
Winn is now the fifth-youngest shortstop in MLB history to win a Gold Glove, surpassing even the precocious Renteria, who was 26 at his first in 2002.
As the offseason looms, Winn’s bat remains a work in progress—.265 average with eight homers and 53 RBIs in 2025—but his glove is already All-World caliber. For Cardinals fans weary from another year without playoffs, this is more than an award; it’s a promise. Masyn Winn isn’t just the future at shortstop—he’s the present, gloved in gold.
Mick Lite is a versatile entrepreneur, photographer, and blogger with a huge passion for Music, Sports, Movies, Food, and Gaming. He has worked as an official scorer, social media manager, and photographer for various college, semi pro, and pro sports teams, including the River City Rascals, St. Louis Attack, Missouri Monsters, St. Charles Chill, SLU Billikens, Gateway Steam, St. Louis Riversharks, and Gateway Grizzlies. Served 12 years in the USN/USAF/USN.
