The winners of the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award, given to the best defensive player in each league, and the Gold Glove Team Award, which honors the best defensive team in each league, were announced Friday.
Astros shortstop Carlos Correa won the Platinum Glove in the American League, and Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado won in the National League.
Those two superstar fielders also represented the top defensive team award winners — Correa’s Astros were named the AL’s Gold Glove Team, and Arenado’s Cardinals were named the NL’s Gold Glove Team.
This is the first career Platinum Glove Award for Correa, who was also a first-time Gold Glover this year. It’s the fifth consecutive Platinum Glove Award for Arenado, but his first with the Cardinals, after he won every year from 2017-20 with the Rockies.
The Gold Glove Team Award was introduced last year, and Houston and St. Louis are both first-time winners. Cleveland and the Cubs won the inaugural award in 2020.
Correa and Arenado were chosen as the top fielders from among this year’s Gold Glove Award winners through a combination of fan voting and a sabermetric component, the SABR Defensive Index. Correa led the AL with +21 Defensive Runs Saved in 2021, while Arenado was one of the top defenders in the NL by various metrics like Ultimate Zone Rating (+5.7) and Statcast’s Outs Above Average (+10).
The Cardinals and Astros were the top two teams in the Majors by Defensive Runs Saved — St. Louis led MLB with +86 DRS, and Houston was second with +78 DRS. They were also the top two fielding teams by Outs Above Average, with the Cardinals’ +50 OAA leading MLB and the Astros’ +45 OAA second-best.
