ST. LOUIS — Rawlings Sporting Goods announced the winners of their Platinum Glove and Team Defense Awards for the 2021 season, and the Cardinals are making St. Louis proud.
The Cardinals' third baseman, Nolan Arenado, won the Rawlings National League Platinum Glove Award.
According to the MLB, the Platinum Glove Award is given to the best defensive player in each league. Meanwhile, the Gold Glove Team Award honors the best defensive team in each league.
The Cardinals were announced as recipients of the Rawlings Team Defense Award for the National League.
As for the American League, the Houston Astros were named the Gold Glove Team, with shortstop Carlos Correa winning the Platinum Glove.
While the two superstar fielders have the Platinum Glove Award in common, Arenado is no stranger to being awarded.
This marks the first Rawlings Platinum Glove Award for Correa and fifth consecutive Rawlings Platinum Glove Award for Arenado. Arenado is the first player to secure five Platinum Glove Awards and the first infielder to begin a career with nine consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.
The Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winners are determined by combining votes based on an adjusted SABR Defensive Index™ (SDI) for each of the nine Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners in each League and from baseball fan votes worldwide.
"Since 2011, fans have passionately chosen the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winners, and they continue to impress us with their knowledge and admiration of great defense," said Scott Bush, chief executive officer of SABR.
The Rawlings Team Award, in its second year, utilizes an SDI that draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts. SDI utilizes MLBAM's Statcast, Sports Information Solutions data, and STATS, LLC data as well as traditional statistics with advanced analysis.
"The Rawlings Team Defense Awards represent a new chapter in 'Gold-Glove' worthy defense, and the recipients truly epitomize "The Finest in the Field," said Mike Thompson, chief marketing officer of Rawlings. "The Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals had countless, memorable defensive plays this season and have undeniably earned the distinction of being named winners of the Rawlings Team Defense Awards."
Both the Rawlings Platinum and Team Defense Awards will be presented to the athletes and their teams, respectively, at games to take place early in the 2022 regular season.
